Medicine is full of jargon. One supposes it came about historically for doctors to convey their superiority over mere mortals. On the other hand for conversations between health care professionals it is easier to use terminology which immediately conveys disease processes. Unfortunately we sometime forget this when talking to our patients. There are ways round this.

Medilexicon

This British site contains a dictionary of over 70,000 medical, pharmaceutical and health care acronyms and abbreviations and medical terms searchable in various ways.

University of Maryland Medicine (USA) has produced an online Medical Encyclopaedia which is divided into eight main reference areas (Disease, Injury, Nutrition, Poison, Special Topic, Surgery, Symptoms and Test ) which are then searchable in alphabetical order but there is no search box.

If on the other hand you think the following definitions make any sense to you then click onto the Alternative guide to medical terms and their meanings!