14.1 Medical Terminology: Roots, Prefixes, Suffixes, Location and Movement Terms, Abbreviations & Specialties

Medical Terminology: Roots, Prefixes, Suffixes, Location and Movement Terms, Abbreviations & Specialties

Exam Focus: Understanding the Language of Medical Reports is a discrete 4% domain on the Series 17-70 — about four scored questions, and one of the few places on the exam where rote vocabulary pays directly. New York is unusual in testing it: most state adjuster exams do not. Learn to decode an unfamiliar term from its parts rather than memorising word lists.

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Why Medical Language Is on an Adjuster Exam

A New York general adjuster reads operative reports, emergency department records, independent medical examination (IME) reports, and no-fault NF-3 health service bills. The reserve you set, the serious-injury threshold analysis you perform under Insurance Law § 5102(d), and the credibility of your file all depend on reading those records accurately. An adjuster who cannot tell arthroscopy from arthroplasty, or -otomy from -ectomy, will mis-reserve a shoulder claim by five figures.

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Decoding a Medical Term: Root + Prefix + Suffix

Almost every clinical term is built from a word root (the body part or system), an optional prefix (position, number, quality) and a suffix (the procedure, condition or process), joined by a combining vowel — usually o.

Common Word Roots

Common Prefixes

Common Suffixes

Reserve Cue: the suffix often tells you the order of magnitude. -scopy is a same-day diagnostic procedure; -ectomy is a partial resection; -plasty and -desis signal joint replacement or fusion, which drive surgical, facility, hardware and long disability exposures.

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Location Terms (Directional Anatomy)

Reports describe findings relative to the anatomical position — standing erect, facing forward, arms at the sides, palms forward.

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Movement Terms (Range of Motion)

Range-of-motion (ROM) deficits are the backbone of a permanent consequential limitation or significant limitation of use argument under the New York serious injury threshold, so an adjuster must read ROM tables fluently.

• Flexion / Extension — decreasing / increasing the angle of a joint.
• Abduction / Adduction — moving away from / toward the midline.
• Rotation — turning about an axis; internal (medial) and external (lateral).
• Pronation / Supination — palm down / palm up.
• Inversion / Eversion — sole turned inward / outward.
• Dorsiflexion / Plantar flexion — toes toward the shin / toes pointed down.
• Circumduction — circular movement combining the above.

A report reading “right shoulder abduction 90° (normal 180°), external rotation 30° (normal 90°)” documents a quantified, objective deficit — far stronger evidence than a narrative complaint of pain.

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Abbreviations Used in Medical Reports

Causation Cue: DJD and DDD are degenerative findings. When an MRI report pairs a disc herniation with extensive DDD, the carrier's causation argument — that the finding pre-dated the accident — gets materially stronger, and an IME or a records review should be considered before reserving to a surgical value.

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Medical Specialties