Medical Terminology Practice Questions
Twelve medical terminology practice questions with answers and explanations from the free Encodr course, from word parts and cavities to body systems.
Medical terminology is the one course where you can work out an answer you have never seen, if you know the word parts. These twelve questions come from Encodr's free Medical Terminology course, which has 17 units. The set mixes the two skills the course tests: building and breaking down words (prefixes, roots and suffixes) and knowing what the organ system terms mean, with questions from eleven different units.
Answer each one before you read the answer line. When a question asks you to define a word, split it into its parts first, say each part, then put the meaning together from the suffix backward. Committing to an answer before you look is what makes practice work, and it is the idea behind the testing effect.
1. Unit 1: Word-Building Foundations
Define pericarditis from its parts (peri- = around, card = heart, -itis = inflammation).
Answer: Inflammation around the heart.
Why: Read the word from the suffix back: -itis is inflammation, peri- is around and card is the heart. Inflammation (-itis) around (peri-) the heart (card).
2. Unit 1: Word-Building Foundations
True or false: Below or deficient is what the prefix hyper- means.
Answer: False
Why: Hyper- means above or excessive. The look-alike hypo- is the one that means below or deficient.
3. Unit 2: Whole-Body Terminology
Which two cavities make up the dorsal (posterior) body cavity?
Answer: The cranial cavity and the spinal (vertebral) cavity.
Why: Dorsal means the posterior side. The ventral (anterior) cavity is the other pair: the thoracic cavity and the abdominopelvic cavity.
4. Unit 3: Integumentary System
Deconstruct rhytidectomy and define it.
Answer: rhytid/ectomy = surgical removal of wrinkles (a facelift)
Why: Rhytid is the root for wrinkle and -ectomy means surgical removal, so rhytidectomy is the surgical removal of wrinkles, a facelift.
5. Unit 4: Skeletal System
Which forearm bone lies on the thumb side?
- A. Radius
- B. Ulna
- C. Humerus
- D. Fibula
Answer: A. Radius
Why: The radius is on the thumb side of the forearm; the ulna is on the little-finger side.
6. Unit 6: Nervous System
The _____ branch of the autonomic system is described as rest and digest.
Answer: parasympathetic
Why: The nervous system note pairs them: the sympathetic branch is fight or flight, and the parasympathetic branch is rest and digest.
7. Unit 8: Endocrine System
Which disorder is caused by a lack of ADH, with large volumes of dilute urine?
- A. diabetes mellitus
- B. diabetes insipidus
- C. diabetic ketoacidosis
- D. Cushing syndrome
Answer: B. diabetes insipidus
Why: Diabetes insipidus is not related to blood sugar; it is a water balance problem from too little ADH.
8. Unit 9: Cardiovascular System
True or false: An angiogram is a procedure that repairs a narrowed vessel.
Answer: False
Why: An angiogram is an image (-gram, a record); the repair of a vessel is angioplasty (-plasty).
9. Unit 10: Blood
Which white blood cell is the most common and is the first responder to bacteria?
- A. neutrophil
- B. eosinophil
- C. basophil
- D. monocyte
Answer: A. neutrophil
Why: Neutrophils are the most numerous white cells; neutr/o means neutral, and the word neutrophil is built on it.
10. Unit 11: Lymphatic and Immune Systems
Which type of hypersensitivity is IgE-mediated and immediate, and includes anaphylaxis?
- A. type II
- B. type I
- C. type III
- D. type IV
Answer: B. type I
Why: Type I reactions are IgE-mediated and fast; anaphylaxis is the severe form.
11. Unit 12: Respiratory System
Which part of the pharynx carries air only, not food?
- A. Oropharynx
- B. Nasopharynx
- C. Laryngopharynx
- D. Epiglottis
Answer: B. Nasopharynx
Why: The nasopharynx, behind the nose, carries air only. The oropharynx and laryngopharynx carry both air and food.
12. Unit 17: Oncology and Mental Health
In TNM staging, N describes involvement of the _____.
Answer: lymph nodes
Why: T describes the size of the primary tumor and N describes the lymph nodes. In stage IV the disease has spread to a distant site.
What your misses tell you
- Missed a word-building question (1, 2, 4 and 8): the gap is in the word parts, not the body systems. Go back to medical prefixes, suffixes and root words and drill the parts until you can say the meaning without thinking.
- Missed a look-alike pair (hyper- versus hypo-, diabetes mellitus versus diabetes insipidus, angiogram versus angioplasty): make a two-column card for each pair and test the contrast, not the single term.
- Missed a system question (3, 5-7 and 9-12): these are fact recall, so spaced repetition is the right tool. A fast overview of the sympathetic and parasympathetic pair that appears in question 6 is in sympathetic vs parasympathetic nervous system.
Keep going
The full Medical Terminology deck has every card from these questions and the other 16 units. For a plan, read how to learn medical terminology fast, and for the map of the course, read what's in medical terminology. If you have a test date, the study schedule generator turns it into a day-by-day plan.
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