Science Prefixes
Many words in science use latin or greek origin words and combine them to describe a concept or process. Students often learn to
a-; an- = not; without; lacking; deficient ab- = away from; out from -able = capable of ac- = to; toward -aceous = of or pertaining to acou-; acous- = hear ad- = to; toward aden- = gland adip- = fat aero- = air agri- = field; soil -al = having the character of alb- = white alto- = high ambi- = both ameb- = change; alternation amni- = fetal membrane amphi-; ampho- = both ana- = up; back; again andro- = man; masculine angi- = blood vessel; duct ante- = before; ahead of time anter- = front antho- = flower anti- = against; opposite anthropo- = man; human apo-; ap- = away from aqu- = water archeo- = primitive; ancient arthr- = joint; articulation -ase = forms names of enzymes aster-; astr = star atmo- = vapor audi- = hear aur- = ear auto- = self bene- = well; good bi- = two; twice brachi- = arm brachy- = short brady- = slow brev- = short bronch- = tube calor- = heat capill- = hair capit- = head carcin- = cancer cardi- = heart carn- = meat carp- = fruit carpal- = wrist cata- = breakdown caud- = tail centi- = hundredth centr- = center cephal- = head cerebr- = brain cervic- = neck chlor- = green chondr- = cartilage chrom- = color chron- = time chym- = juice -cis- = cut, kill circa- = around co- = together coel- = hollow coll- = glue contra- = against cort- = outer layer counter- = against crypt- = hidden cul-, cule- = small, tiny cuti- = skin cyan- = blue cyst- = sac, pouch cyt- = cell dactyl- = finger dent- = tooth demi- = half derm- = skin di- = two, double dors- = back dys- = bad, abnormal ecto- = outside of en-, endo-, ent- = in, into, within enter- = intestine -eous = nature of epi- = upon, above -err- = wander, go astray erythro- = red extra- = beyond, outside ferro- = iron fibr- = fiber foli- = leaf gastr- = stomach geo- = land, earth -gene- = origin, birth -gest- = carry, produce -glob- = round gloss- = tongue gluc-; glyc- = sugar glut- = buttock -grad- = step gyn- = female |
halo- = salt hem- = blood hepat- = liver herb- = grass, plants hetero- = different, other hist- = tissue holo- = whole, entire homo- (Latin) man, human hydr- = water hyper- = above hypo- = below -iac = person afflicted with disease -iasis - abnormal condition infra- below, beneath inter- = between intra- = within, inside -ism = state or condition iso- = same, equal -ist = person who deals with kine- = move lact- = milk lingu- = tongue -logist = one who studies -logy = study of -lumin = light -lys; -lyt-, -lyst = decompose malle- = hammer mamm- = breast mart- = edge mela- = black, dark met- = between micro- = small mis- = wrong, incorrect mito- = thread mono- = single mort- = death morph- = shape multi- many my- = muscle necr- = corpse neo- = new, recent neur- = nerve non- = not ocul- = eye odont- = tooth -oid = form, appearance oligo- = few, little -oma = abnormal, tumor onc- = mass, tumor oo- = egg opt- = eye orb- = round, circle -osis = abnormal condition oste- = bone oto- = ear -ous = full of ov- = egg paleo- = old, ancient pan- = all par- = beside, equal - ped- = foot or child pent- = five per- = through peri- = around phag- = eat pheno- = slow -phil- = loving, fond of phon- = sound photo- = light physi- = nature pino- = drink plasm- = formed into platy- = flat pleur- = lung pneumo- = lungs, air -pod = foot por- = opening post- = after pre- = before rect- = right, correct ren- = kidney ret- = net roto- = wheel sarc- = flesh scler- = hard semi- = partial septic- = infection som- = body -stat-, -stasis = staying strat- = layer sub- = under, below super- = over syn, sym- = together tarso- = ankle tele- = distant telo- = end therm- = heat trans- = across tri = three uni- = one vas- = vessel vit, viv- = life zo, zoa- = animal zyg- = come together |