How are medical terms constructed?

Answer 1

Prefix, combining form IE: Tox/o means "toxic" and a suffix "ic" in toxic means "pertaining to" this particular word does not contain a prefix.

for instance "hyperthyroidism" Prefix "hyper" means excessive or above; the combining form "thyroid/o" means thyroid, typically the O is dropped when a suffix is added which is the "-ism" which means process or condition. This is how you understand that you are reading about a "condition of" an "excessive-more than" of the "thyroid"

Hypoglycemia- break it down; Hypo- means deficient or below Glyc/o means sugar

-emia means condition of blood

therefor Hypo-glyc-emia means condition of low blood sugar