International English Test Editorial Team·5 Dec 2023·2 min read
Acquire a wealth of valuable medical vocabulary and expressions from this guide.Today, I won’t overwhelm you with intricate and obscure medical terminology in English. Instead, I’ll familiarize you with fundamental medical terms that may prove essential in the unfortunate event that you find yourself in a hospital in another country. Having a grasp of basic medical vocabulary is crucial for navigating healthcare systems, particularly in a country like the United States, unless you happen to carry a medical dictionary. Moreover, possessing enough English vocabulary to discuss health issues can be beneficial in various situations. For English learners, mastering these terms not only facilitates comprehension of medical discussions with doctors but also enables understanding of English-language TV shows with medical themes.
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B.I.D. is one of the medical abbreviations covered here alongside MRI, EKG, CBC, and X-ray. It appears commonly on prescriptions and instructions from doctors. Learning these short forms helps you read paperwork and follow directions in an English-speaking hospital, where staff often use abbreviations rather than full terms when discussing tests, scans, and dosage schedules with patients.
These three words describe how a disease behaves. Chronic means a long-lasting condition that continues over time, benign describes something not harmful or not cancerous, and terminal refers to an illness expected to end in death. Knowing this distinction lets you understand a doctor properly, because the same diagnosis can sound very different depending on which of these words is attached to it.
A doctor who treats children is a paediatrician, and a doctor who treats skin conditions is a dermatologist. Other specialists include the cardiologist for the heart, the orthopedist for bones, the gastroenterologist for digestion, and the ophthalmologist for eyes. Using the correct specialist name helps you ask reception for the right department instead of seeing a general physician or family doctor first.
To treat means to give care or medicine to manage a condition, while to cure means to make the illness completely go away. A doctor can treat symptoms without curing the underlying disease. Related verbs include heal, used for an injury such as a wound or broken bone, and remedy, often used as a noun for something that relieves a cold or the flu.
Numb describes a loss of feeling in part of the body, often caused by a painkiller or an anesthesiologist before a procedure. It sits among practical medical-field words such as syringe, vein, dosage, biopsy, blood sample, and cast. Recognising numb is useful because staff may tell you an area will go numb before they insert a needle or take a sample.
These abbreviations name different places inside a hospital. ER stands for Emergency Room, where urgent cases are seen first; OR stands for Operating Room, where surgeons perform procedures; and ICU stands for Intensive Care Unit, for the most seriously ill patients. A general ward holds regular patients. Knowing these terms helps you understand directions and find the right area in an unfamiliar hospital abroad.
In everyday English a bug means a virus, so catching a bug usually refers to a minor illness like a cold or the flu rather than an insect. This informal use sits beside words such as sickness and remedy. Understanding it helps English learners follow casual conversations and medical-themed TV shows, where people frequently say they have picked up a bug instead of naming the exact virus.
International English Test Editorial Team
ALTE Associate Member · UK English assessment provider · Est. 2023
