Glossary of Medical Terms, Abbreviations & Symbols
Dutch-English, French-English, German-English

As any medical translator knows,"medical glossaries" are no use when it comes to terminology in highly specialised - and often very new - areas of medicine. The Internet offers few multilingual resources in enough depth, and specialist printed works are a) expensive and b) invariably out of date by the time they are published...

This Glossary is a strictly personal record of everything I have ever needed to check or find out. As such it is something of a "mixed bag", with a particular (though not exclusive) focus on respiratory disease, occupational safety and health (OSH) and environmental toxicology. The Glossary is fully searchable, so it can be used by translators working into and out of English. CAVEAT: It is the fruit of learning on the job, not of any formal training in medicine, so whilst terms are correct to the best of my belief, I make no claim to omniscience. I offer the Glossary "as is". Due to space constraints definitions and notes are minimal, and the translator should use the terms given as a starting point for further research.
Comments or suggestions very welcome to Alison Gaunt.

Important: I assume that translators using this Glossary will routinely use a good medical encyclopaedia in their mother tongue, so the Glossary generally excludes:
< Terms whose form is essentially Latin or Greek (easy to find...)
< Diseases, tests, devices & body parts named after people (same reason...).

There is some overlap between this Glossary and my Glossary of Chemistry & Environmental Protection. 

Please feel free to check out my other online Glossaries too:
Glossary of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Science, Plant Health & Veterinary Science
Glossary: EU & International Affairs 
Abbreviations & Acronyms Glossary
Bird Flu Glossary
Glossary of Social Security, Health Insurance & Pensions 
Glossary of World Customs & International Trade
Glossary: The Bundestag in English

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Or to search this and ALL my other glossaries in one hit, use the box below.
NB spelling is British English like me, so "sulph-" not "sulf-", "haem-" not "hem-, "foetal" not "fetal", etc.

Key to sources & specialist fields
anaesth. = anaesthesia / card. = cardiology / D = Germany / dent. = dentistry / emed. = emergency medicine / erg. = ergonomics / EU = European Union / FR = France / gyn. = gynaecology / hist. = histology / ILO = International Labour Office / ITI =Institute of Translation & Interpreting, especially its knowledgeable Medical & Pharmaceutical Network / maxillof. = maxillofacial surgery / NL = Netherlands / obsol. = obsolete / obst. = obstetrics / ophth. = ophthalmology / orth. = orthopaedics / OSH = occupational safety & health / pharm. = pharmaceutical / pop. = popular term / rad. = radiation; radiography; radiology / rmed. = respiratory medicine / surg. = surgery,  surgical / tox. = toxicology / vet. = veterinary medicine

Please visit my HOMEPAGE too !