Question

Why is it important to be able to break down medical terms into component parts? why not just memorize each term?

Answer 1

It is very important to be able to break down medical terms into component parts because you will get a better understanding of the term. You will know the area of the body the term refers to and in term know where to refer them to as well. As discussed above, when breaking down words/terms we need to know what the separate parts mean in order to understand the meaning of the whole word. The reason we don't memorize the terms is because there are too many to do that so. Instead we learn the meaning of the roots, suffixes, prefixes, and the component forms. This way you learn how to read them to correctly in order to understand their full meaning.