What does the root 'oste/o' mean?

• A. Nerve
• B. Muscle
• C. Bone
• D. Blood

Answer: (C)

Understanding how medical terms are built helps you spot the meaning quickly. The combining form oste/o designates bone. It ties to many bone-related words, such as osteology (the study of bones), osteoblast (a cell that forms bone), osteoporosis (a condition of weakened bones), and osteoarthritis (joint disease involving bones and cartilage). The small linking vowel “o” helps attach the root to suffixes or other roots.

Nerve uses neur/o or neuro-, muscle uses my/o or sarc/o, and blood uses hemat/o or hemo-. Those roots point to different body parts, so they don’t fit here.