A medical term ending with -ic is likely to mean what?

• A. Pain
• B. Without
• C. Pertaining to
• D. Blood

Answer: (C)

The ending -ic forms adjectives that mean “pertaining to” or “related to.” It’s a common way to turn a root into a descriptor about a body part or system, such as cardiac (pertaining to the heart), gastric (pertaining to the stomach, and neural (pertaining to nerves). So a term ending in -ic signals a relationship to something rather than indicating pain, absence, or blood. Pain is usually shown with -algia (neuralgia, for example), without is indicated by prefixes like a- or an-, and blood-related terms use roots like hemat/o or hem/o with their own suffixes (such as -emia or hematologic).