Dictionary of Medical Terms

Fibrous sheets of tissue connecting or covering the muscles.

A major energy source for animals and humans. Fat contains nine calories per gram.

Physical or mental exhaustion. Weariness.

Body waste expelled from the rectum. Also called bowel movement or stool.

Having to do with the femur.

The thigh bone.

The ability to have children.

The process of joining the male’s sperm and the female’s ovum (egg).

Having to do with the fetus.

The unborn baby from the end of the eighth week after fertilization of the egg to birth.

Abnormally high body temperature.

1. A slender, thread-like structure of organ tissue. 2. In the diet, strands of complex carbohydrates (cellulose) that aren’t…

A rapid, uncoordinated series of contractions of some part of the heart muscle causing irregular heartbeats. Atrial fibrillation is the…

A serum protein that’s essential for the clotting process.

A noncancerous tumor of the uterus composed of muscle fibers. Also called uterine myoma.

A painful condition with multiple sensitive areas, called “tender points,” affecting fibrous tissues, muscles, tendons and ligaments.

Inflammation of fibrous tissues.

The long, thin, outer bone of the lower leg.

A narrow slit.

An abnormal passage from an abscess, cavity or hollow organ to the skin or another abscess.

Soft and flabby. Often used to describe complete paralysis (loss of movement) without muscle spasm.