The suffix -necrosis means

• A. death
• B. blood condition
• C. swelling
• D. pain, suffering

Answer: (A)

The suffix -necrosis denotes tissue death. It comes from Greek nekrosis, meaning dead tissue, and is used in medical terms to describe irreversible death of cells or tissue caused by injury, lack of blood supply, or infection. That’s why the meaning is death. Other endings point to different concepts—-emia refers to blood, -edema to swelling, and -algia to pain—so they don’t fit the idea of tissue dying. For example, necrosis can occur in heart tissue after a heart attack (coagulative necrosis) or in brain tissue after an injury, illustrating tissue death rather than something like a blood condition, swelling, or pain.