hemat-

Hemat- is a combining form used like a prefix meaning “blood.” It is used in many medical terms, especially in pathology.

Hemat- comes from the Greek haîma, meaning “blood.”

Hemat- is a variant of hemato-, which loses its -o– when combined with words or word elements beginning with vowels. The spelling haemat- is chiefly used in British English.

Want to know more? Read our Words That Use hemato- article.

Hemat-, hemato-, and haemat- are some of the many variants of the combining form hemo–. Another is hema-.

As with haemat-, all of these combining forms are often spelled with an additional a in British English, as in haemo-, haema-, and haemato-. Historically, these forms have been spelled with a ligature of the a and e, as in hæmat-.

Also closely related to hemat- are -aemia, -emia, -haemia, and -hemia, which are combined to the ends of words to denote blood conditions.

You can learn all about the specific applications for each of these forms at our Words That Use articles for them.

One example of a medical term you may have encountered that features the combining form hemat- is hematoma, “a circumscribed collection of blood, usually clotted, in a tissue or organ, caused by a break in a blood vessel.”

The first part of the word, hemat-, means “blood.” The suffix -oma is used to name tumors or other abnormal growth. So, a hematoma has a literal sense of “abnormal swelling of blood.”

What are some words that use the combining form hemat-?

• hematal
• hematic
• hematein
• hematemesis
• hematencephalon
• hematin
• hematite (using the equivalent form of hemat- in Greek)
• hematoid

What are some other forms that hemat- may be commonly confused with?

• chemi–
• chemo-
• chromat-
• hemangio-
• hemi-
• homo-
• homeo-
• stomat-

The suffix -oid means “resembling, like.” With that in mind, what does hematoid mean?