Greek roots reveal the body part, condition or procedure inside many medical terms. Learn common forms and practise breaking down words such as gastroenteritis and neuropathy.
Discover the ideas, history and language behind this featured subject.
Read the featured articleEnglish vocabulary grew through contact with Norse, French, Latin, Greek and languages worldwide. Borrowed words change pronunciation, spelling and meaning until they become ordinary English.
Algebra, algorithm, cipher and zero carry the history of mathematical knowledge moving from India through the Arabic-speaking scholarly world into medieval Europe.
English law developed in a multilingual world. Old English, Latin and Law French left overlapping layers that still shape words such as verdict, tort, estate, plaintiff and habeas corpus.
Modern medical English contains ancient Greek, Latin, Arabic-mediated scholarship and ordinary English. The layers explain both the precision and the strangeness of medical vocabulary.