oto-

DEFINITION of oto-

Oto‑ comes into play as a combining form (often written o- when broken out in med‑term class) to build terms for ear anatomy, pathology, and procedures. In practice you’ll see it across specialties: otology (ear subspecialty of ENT), otitis media/externa (ear infections), ototoxic (ear‑damaging drugs), and otoplasty (plastic surgery of the external ear).

|Term|Breakdown|Meaning| |---|---|---| |Otology|oto‑ “ear” + ‑logy “study of”|Medical study and care of the ear.rxlist+1| |Otitis (e.g., otitis media)|oto‑ “ear” + ‑itis “inflammation”|Inflammation/infection of the ear.wikipedia+1| |Otoscope|o “ear” + ‑scope “instrument for viewing”|Instrument used to examine the ear canal and tympanic membrane.mastermedicalterms​| |Otoplasty|oto‑ “ear” + ‑plasty “surgical repair”|Plastic surgery to reshape or repair the external ear.rxlist+1| |Otosclerosis|o “ear” + o- “hardening” + ‑osis “condition”|Abnormal bone hardening of the middle ear causing conductive hearing loss.studocu+1|

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ETYMOLOGY of oto-

greek “Oto‑” derives from Ancient Greek οὖς (ous), genitive ὠτός (ōtós), meaning “ear,” with the combining stem ōt- that gives us ot‑/oto‑ in scientific and medical vocabulary. It parallels the Latin‑derived aur‑/[[auri‑]] (as in aural) which also means “ear,” but oto‑ is the standard Greek form in most medical terminology lists.

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RELATED TERMS to oto-

Term	Meaning	Prefix/Suffix?	Notes
oto-	ear	-	-
o-	ear	prefix	-
ot-	ear	prefix	-

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DERIVATIONS of oto-

TABLE definition AS Definition
FROM #medroot
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SORT file.name ASC

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Query functionality

TABLE definition AS Definition
FROM #medroot
WHERE length(filter(definition, (word) => econtains([[]].definition, word))) > 0 AND file.name != [[]].file.name

Med roots dictionary Appendix A Prefixes Appendix B Combining Forms Appendix C Suffixes Appendix D Suffix forms