Suffix · forms nouns
Indicates inflammation of an organ or body part: arthr + itis = arthritis.
Written by Bryan López, English teacher · Updated
The suffix -itis comes from Greek and means "inflammation of". It combines with the name of an organ or tissue to name the inflammatory disease of that area. From "arthr" (joint) you get "arthritis"; from "append" (appendix) you get "appendicitis"; from "tonsill" (tonsil) you get "tonsillitis". It appears in very commonly used medical vocabulary: many everyday illnesses are named with -itis.
This is one of the rare technical suffixes where English and Spanish are literally identical: arthritis = artritis appendicitis = apendicitis tonsillitis = amigdalitis tendinitis = tendinitis bronchitis = bronquitis The only difference is pronunciation: in English the stress falls on the penultimate syllable: ar-THRI-tis, ap-pen-di-CI-tis.
In modern informal English, -itis is used humorously to name imaginary conditions or obsessive states: phonitis = addiction to your phone meetingitis = too many work meetings Mondayitis = the Monday blues These are not real medical terms. But knowing that -itis = "inflammation of / too much of" lets you understand the joke instantly.
Greek or Latin root of the organ/tissue + itis.
The roots are Greek or Latin. In many cases the root does not exist as an independent English word (arthr, hepat, tonsill), so the most practical approach is to learn each -itis word as fixed medical vocabulary.
-itis/aɪtɪs/ · sounds like 'EYE-tiss'
Tap the button to hear how the ending sounds. Each word in the table has its own audio.
appendicitis ends in -itis, single s. It does not double.
In English it is pronounced "bron-KAI-tis". The -ch- sounds like /k/.
In English the stress is HEP-uh-TY-tis. There is no written accent in English.
A trick to remember it
-itis always means inflammation of something. If you hear a medical word ending in -itis, you know it is an inflammatory disease of the body part named in the root.
Exercise 1 · Form the word
Exercise 2 · Pick the right one
What does the suffix -itis mean?
Exercise 3 · Pick the right one
"hepatitis" is inflammation of the...
The suffix -itis indicates inflammation of an organ or body part: arthr + itis = arthritis. In Spanish it usually maps to -itis.
The ending -itis is pronounced /aɪtɪs/ · sounds like 'EYE-tiss'. For example, "arthritis".
"arthr" becomes "arthritis". It is a typical example of the -itis suffix.
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