How do you break down an unfamiliar medical term into its parts?

To decode an unfamiliar medical term, start from the suffix because it tells you the category, then identify the root word for the body part, and finally check for a prefix that modifies the meaning. For example, electrocardiogram breaks into electro meaning electrical, cardi meaning heart, and gram meaning a record, so it is a record of the electrical activity of the heart. Cholecystectomy breaks into chole meaning bile or gallbladder, cyst meaning sac, and ectomy meaning removal, so it is the surgical removal of the gallbladder. This three-step method works for most medical terms.