Medicine & Health

Advanced health and medical vocabulary

Introduction

Healthcare conversations often require vocabulary beyond basic body parts and common illnesses. Understanding medical terminology helps you navigate health systems, read about treatments, and discuss wellbeing at a deeper level.

This chapter covers advanced medical and health vocabulary. From diagnostic terminology to public health concepts, these words prepare you for more sophisticated health-related communication.

Themes

All Advanced Vocabulary in This Chapter (26)

• diagnosis The identification of the nature of an illness or other problem by examinatio...
• prognosis A forecast of the likely course and outcome of a disease or illness; more bro...
• chronic Of a disease or condition, persisting for a long time or constantly recurring...
• acute Of a disease or condition, severe and sudden in onset but typically of short ...
• therapeutic Relating to the healing of disease or the treatment of a disorder; also, havi...
• pathology The science of the causes and effects of diseases, especially as examined thr...
• inflammation A localised physical condition in which part of the body becomes reddened, sw...
• antibody A protein produced by the immune system in response to the presence of a fore...
• vaccine A substance used to stimulate the production of antibodies and provide immuni...
• pharmaceutical Relating to the preparation, dispensing, and use of medicinal drugs; as a nou...
• dosage The size or frequency of a dose of a medicine or drug; the administration of ...
• syndrome A group of symptoms that consistently occur together and characterise a parti...
• benign In medicine, of a tumour or growth, not cancerous or harmful; more broadly, g...
• malignant In medicine, of a tumour, tending to invade normal tissue and spread to other...
• remission A temporary or permanent decrease in the severity of disease symptoms; in oth...
• rehabilitation The process of restoring someone to health or normal life through therapy and...
• epidemiology The branch of medicine that studies the distribution, patterns, and determina...
• prevalence The proportion of a population found to have a particular condition at a spec...
• incidence The rate at which new cases of a disease or condition occur in a population o...
• morbidity The condition of being diseased or the rate of disease in a population; also,...
• mortality The state of being subject to death; the death rate in a given population, es...
• surgical Relating to or used in surgery; figuratively, describing an action carried ou...
• congenital Of a disease or condition, present from birth, whether inherited genetically ...
• neurological Relating to the anatomy, functions, and disorders of the nervous system, incl...
• cardiac Relating to the heart, especially in medical contexts; as a noun, a person wi...
• respiratory Relating to or affecting breathing or the organs and structures involved in b...