gastric
Meaning of gastric: Gastric structures and conditions involve the stomach, including its lining, secretions, and the disorders that can affect its function.
Definition of gastric
Gastric means relating to the stomach. The word describes stomach anatomy, such as the gastric lining and gastric arteries, stomach secretions, such as gastric acid, and disease processes affecting the stomach, including gastric ulcers, gastritis, and gastric cancer.
The stomach plays a central role in digestion, breaking down food with acid and enzymes before it passes into the small intestine, so gastric function is closely tied to nutrition and to symptoms such as nausea, bloating, and abdominal pain. Gastric acid also serves a protective role by helping to limit the growth of ingested bacteria, which is one reason that medications reducing gastric acid can have effects beyond simply easing symptoms.
The term combines with others to describe related structures and procedures, such as gastrointestinal, referring to the stomach and intestines together, and gastrectomy, the surgical removal of all or part of the stomach.
How gastric is built
- gastr/o Combining form · Greek stomach
- -ac, -al, -ar, -ary, -eal, -ic Suffix · Greek and Latin pertaining to, relating to
A medical term is read from its ending backwards: the suffix first, then the prefix, then the root. See all 223 word parts.
Used in a sentence
Endoscopy identified a gastric ulcer as the likely source of the patient's abdominal pain.
Good to know
Gastric symptoms such as upper abdominal pain can arise from the stomach itself or from nearby organs, so a gastric cause is confirmed through further evaluation rather than assumed from the location of pain alone.
Word origin
Where “gastric” comes from
From Greek gaster, gastr-, meaning "stomach."