Confused by medical terms? Don't know a carcinoma from a hematoma? ''Medical Terminology For Dummies'' gets you up to speed quickly on medical terminology fundamentals and helps you master medical definitions, pronunciations, and applications across all health care fields. Once you understand medical prefixes, suffixes, and root words, you'll approach even unfamiliar medical terms with confidence. This plain-English guide to language that can be just plain confusing clears up the meanings of the Greek and Latin sources of medical terms. You'll get a handle on how these mouthfuls are constructed, and discover how to decipher any medical term, no matter how complex or unusual. You'll also get plenty of help in pronouncing and remembering medical words, and you'll find out how and why the terminology changes from hospital to laboratory to pharmacy. You'll discover how to: understand word foundations and origins; grasp the essential meanings of unfamiliar terms; define common prefixes and suffixes; identify and pronounce medical terms; deconstruct words to grasp definitions; use plurals and multiples with ease; describe medical conditions accurately; bone up on terms that describe the anatomy; use mnemonic devices to remember medical terms; know when words refer to diseases, injuries, treatments, and more; and, use medical terminology in the real world. Complete with a list of essential references on medical terminology as well as helpful word-building activities ''Medical Terminology For Dummies'' puts you in the know in no time.