The Language of Embryology

One of the problems in learning about embryonic development is the vocabulary. To describe what happens, researchers had to give names to parts of the embryo, and most of these names are unfamiliar words. They were coined at a time when scientists knew and used Latin and Greek, and most of them are derived from a fairly small number of Latin and Greek roots. If you are familiar with some of these roots, then the terms don't seem quite so arbitrary, and you may find it easier to remember them. The following list is not exhaustive, but it should help for terms you will encounter during the course.

Prefix and/or Suffix	Meaning	Examples
-Blast	Precursor cell	Myoblast
Coel- / -coel	Cavity	Coelom, blastocoel
cyto- / -cyte	Cell	Cytoskeleton, erythrocyte
Derma- / -derm	Layer, skin	Dermatome, mesoderm
Ecto-	Outer	Ectoderm
Endo-	Inner	Endoderm
Epi-	Above	Epiblast
Exo-	Out of	Exocytosis
Hetero-	Different	Heterozygous
Holo-	Whole	Holoblastic
Hypo-	Under	Hypoblast
Iso-	Same, uniform	Isolecithal
Karyo- / -karyon	Nucleus (seed)	Karyotype, heterokaryon
Kineto- / -kinesis	Movement	Kinetochore, cytokinesis
Macro-	Large	Macrophage
Mero- / -mere	Part	Meroblastic, blastomere
Meso-	Middle	Mesoderm
Meta-	Middle	Metaphase
Multi-	Many	Multicellular
Myo-	Muscle	Myoblast
Osteo-	Bone	Osteoblast
Ovi-	Egg	Oviduct
Peri-	Around	Perivitelline
Phago- / -phage	Eating, eater	Phagocytosis, macrophage
Pluri-	Multiple	Pluripotent
Poly-	Many	Polyspermy
Pro-	Before	Pronucleus
Soma- / -some	Body	Somatic, acrosome
Stomo- / -stome	Mouth	Deuterostome
Telo-	End	Telolecithal, telomere
Toti-	All	totipotent
Tropho- / -troph / -trophy	Change	Trophoblast, hypertrophy
Uni-	One	Unicellular