Medication Prefixes and Suffixes: A Free Cheat Sheet to Decode Common Medication Names

The world of medications can be overwhelming, especially if you’re unfamiliar with the jargon used to describe them. However, once you learn how to decode medication names, you’ll have a better understanding of what they are used for and what class of drugs they belong to. This article will cover common medication prefixes and suffixes, pharmacologic suffixes, and medication prefixes/suffixes specifically for the NCLEX exam. We’ll also provide a useful cheat sheet for generic drug name stems, so you can recognize the most common drugs on the market.

Here’s a list of some common medication prefixes and suffixes that may help you identify what a medication does:

Prefixes:

• Anti-: against or opposed to (e.g. antibiotic, antihistamine)
• Cardio-: related to the heart (e.g. cardiology, cardiovascular)
• Chemo-: related to chemicals or drugs (e.g. chemotherapy)
• Contra-: against or opposite (e.g. contraceptive, contraindication)
• Endo-: inside or within (e.g. endocrine, endoscopy)
• Hyper-: excessive or high (e.g. hypertension, hyperactive)
• Hypo-: insufficient or low (e.g. hypotension, hypothyroidism)
• Neuro-: related to the nervous system (e.g. neurology, neurotoxin)
• Osteo-: related to bones (e.g. osteoporosis, osteoarthritis)

Suffixes:

• -cillin: a type of antibiotic (e.g. penicillin, amoxicillin)
• -dazole: used to treat infections caused by parasites (e.g. metronidazole)
• -mycin: a type of antibiotic (e.g. erythromycin, neomycin)
• -olol: beta blocker medication used to treat heart conditions (e.g. propranolol)
• -pam or -lam: medication used to treat anxiety or insomnia (e.g. lorazepam, alprazolam)
• -pril: medication used to treat high blood pressure (e.g. enalapril, lisinopril)
• -sartan: medication used to treat high blood pressure (e.g. losartan, valsartan)
• -statin: medication used to lower cholesterol levels (e.g. atorvastatin, simvastatin)
• -thiazide: medication used to treat high blood pressure (e.g. hydrochlorothiazide)
• -vir: medication used to treat viral infections (e.g. acyclovir, valacyclovir)