col/o means colon (large intestine) (from the Greek word kolon).
What does col/o mean?
Col/o is a combining form (a word root) used in medical terms to mean the colon, which is the main part of the large intestine. It comes from the Greek word kolon. When you see col/o in a medical term, it is usually pointing to the colon.
As a medical term building block, col/o joins with other roots, prefixes, and suffixes to form many words. For example, colitis means inflammation of the colon, colonoscopy means examination of the colon with a scope, and colectomy means surgical removal of part or all of the colon. Once you know that col/o means colon, you can work out the meaning of these longer words from their other parts.
Col/o is a root (a combining form), not a prefix. It usually sits at or near the start of a word and carries the core meaning of the term. This is why some people search for it as a prefix, even though it is technically a root.
Col/o is a useful root to learn because bowel and digestive terms are common. It pairs naturally with the intestine root enter/o and the stomach root gastr/o, and with suffixes such as -itis (inflammation), -scopy (examination), and -ectomy (removal).
Example words using col/o
Related word parts
enter/o · gastr/o · -itis · -scopy · -ectomy