ENGLISH VOCABULARY

The Ultimate English Guide to Body Parts

and Health Vocabulary
Even if you have no intention at all of becoming a doctor or nurse, it is extremely
important that you learn how to talk about health and body parts in English.

Imagine this situation: you are traveling abroad and suddenly you start feeling
sick. You take the medicines you brought with you, but nothing seems to work.
What do you do next? You go to the hospital. At the hospital, you will talk to nurses
and doctors and they will ask you to describe what you are feeling. I have been to
hospitals when traveling abroad and I know how scary it is when you are sick and
have no idea how to describe your symptoms.

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This guide teaches you about health and body vocabulary in English, the names
of common diseases and their symptoms, and a list of idioms that we often use
when talking about feeling sick. We will also give you some recommendations of
medical TV shows so you can practice your English listening skills by watching a
conversation between a doctor and a patient.

Body parts list in English: the front

Take a look at the image below to learn the names of the body parts which
compose the front of your body. Then, we have a close-up of the face for you to
study more vocabulary about the parts of the body in English. Look at this gallery
with human body parts pictures and names.

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Close-up: mouth
Let us also talk about the inside of your mouth. You have 32 teeth (plural form).
When talking about one of them, you will call it a tooth (singular form). There are
4 different types of teeth: incisors, canines, premolars, and molars.

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Among the molars, we have four which we call wisdom teeth. Wisdom teeth are
the last to grow and people usually have them removed by the age of 20. It can be
very painful if they get infected. After removing them, people often go on a liquid
diet for a few days – it is a great excuse to have an insane amount of ice cream!

When we are having our wisdom teeth removed, we can say:

I am having my wisdom teeth out tomorrow.

You taste food with your tongue. And the tissue around the teeth is called gum.

Other words associated with your mouth are dentist, braces, brush (teeth), oss,
dental oss, root canal.

Close-up: hands
We have names for each of our ngers. Let’s learn each one of them!

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Close-up: feet
It is important to know that we use the word nger to talk about the parts of our
hands, but we use the word toe to talk about our feet. The rst thing every new
parent does is count the ngers and toes of a baby, right? Ten ngers, ten toes.

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Parts of the body in English: the back
Take a look at the image below to learn the vocabulary of the body parts which
compose the back of the human body.

FYI: There are several names we use to refer to our butt. Butt is the most common
one, but you may also hear bottom, buttocks, booty, and bum.

English vocabulary list for internal organs

Most health problems and diseases (you can read more about health and diseases
below) start in our internal organs. Since we cannot see these body parts, we take
blood tests (also referred to as blood work) or imaging exams so that the doctors
can diagnose us with a condition. The names of some imaging exams are: X-ray,
computer tomography (CT) scan, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and
ultrasound.

Some of the internal organs that a doctor will check are listed below.

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 appendix bladder bone

brain digestive system gallblader

heart large intestine liver

lungs skeleton small intestine

spleen spine urinary tract

Names of the internal organs in English

Vocabulary for health and diseases in English

Let’s learn English vocabulary about the most common diseases we may
experience during our lives and review the symptoms that are often associated
with each one of them and the medicines we usually take to cure them. Health
problems vocabulary can be complex, so if you are an ESL beginner, don’t worry
about trying to learn all these words at once.

Disease, illness, or sickness?

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First off, it is important for you to know that you may see three words when
reading about problems people have with their body: disease, illness, and
sickness. Even though they are used interchangeably, there are some differences
between them.

Disease is the name a health professional gives to a health condition.

Example: Giving up smoking reduces the risk of heart disease.

Illness is the name people give to what they are feeling. There is a saying (an
expression that usually contains some wisdom or advice) that goes like this and
may help us understand the difference: a patient goes to the doctor with an
illness, and goes home with a disease.

Example: Scientists have not yet found a cure for this illness.

Sickness is how we refer to the social and cultural conceptions of disease. Sick is
an adjective we use to say we are not feeling well (similar to ill), but is also used to
say we are nauseous (e.g. I get sick during long car rides) or that something is cool
(e.g. The concert was sick! You would have loved it!).

Example: Stress is often a factor in the development of long-term sickness.

How to describe health symptoms in English

Here we have some of the most common diseases and their symptoms. It is
important to describe symptoms in English so that the doctor can diagnose you.

Disease Symptoms

fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose,

Flu
muscle or body aches, headaches, tiredness

cramps, constipation, vomiting, fever, loss of

Stomachache
appetite

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 Headache (types of pain on one or both sides of your head, pain that
headaches: migraines, throbs or pulses, sensitivity to light and sounds,
tension, sinus) nausea, vomiting

pain inside the ear, dif culty hearing, discharge

Earache running out the ear, pressure inside the ear, itching
around the ear

rashes (red spots), uid- lled blisters, fever, aches,

Chickenpox
pains

Other common, but more serious, diseases are:

diabetes (type 1 and type 2)

stroke
asthma
heart attack
hypertension (high blood pressure, often referred to as ‘high BP’)
AIDS
cancer
lower respiratory infections (such as pneumonia, in uenza, bronchitis, and
tuberculosis)
Alzheimer’s disease

Medicine vocabulary in English: over the counter and

prescription drugs
Medicines are divided into two categories: over-the-counter (OTC) medicines and
prescription drugs. OTC medicines are those which we can purchase without a
medical prescription. Prescription drugs, on the other hand, require written
permission (prescription) from a doctor and should only be used by the person to
whom they were prescribed.

Some common OTC medicines are:

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Acetaminophen (brand name: Tylenol)
Ibuprofen (brand names: Advil, Motrin)
Antihistamines (brand name: Allegra)
Aspirin
Expectorants
Decongestants

Common English idioms to talk about feeling sick

Do you remember the de nition of “idiom”? No? We have got you covered.

Idioms are groups of words. Those groups together mean something different
than what those words mean separately. They have a lot to do with the culture of
the people who use it and that is why we cannot always translate them.
Sometimes, even if we cannot translate it, it is possible to have an equivalence in
another language.

For instance, while English speakers say “It is raining cats and dogs!” to say that it
is raining a lot, Brazilian Portuguese speakers will say “Está chovendo canivete!”,
which literally means “It is raining pocket knives!”. You probably have some
equivalent expression to that in your native language, don’t you?

Let us take a look at some idioms that English speakers use to say they are feeling
sick or unwell.

Idiom Meaning Example

be/feel/look
under the feel unwell Lucy looks under the weather today.
weather

be coming feel like you are

Sorry, I cannot go out tonight. I think I
down with starting to become
am coming down with something.
something sick

be out of sorts be ill or unhappy I have been out of sorts lately.

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 be very sick, especially
be sick as a I was sick as a dog after eating
related to stomach
dog shrimp last night.
diseases

My mom took a turn for worse

take a turn for become sicker than
yesterday and I decided to take her to
worse you were before
the hospital.

Body and health vocabulary practice

There is no better way to learn more about body parts, diseases, and medicines
than by watching medical series. They are addicting and you can de nitely learn a
lot by watching the TV doctors and their intriguing cases. There are countless
shows you could watch if you are interested in learning more about this topic, but
here are a few recommendations from me – a medical series lover. Check it out!

Grey’s Anatomy: this is the longest medical drama in the history of television. No
need to say anything else, right? The show follows Dr. Meredith Grey and her
friends since the beginning of their careers as doctors at a hospital in Seattle.
There are 16 seasons available and the 17th is coming out this November.

ER: it aired from 1994 to 2009 and tells the story of the emergency room (ER) of a
ctional hospital in Chicago. The famous actor George Clooney played Dr. Doug
Ross for the rst four seasons of the show.

More TV shows about medicine

The Good Doctor: this show follows Dr. Shawn Murphy, a young autistic surgeon
from a small city who moves to California to work at a prestigious hospital. There
are three seasons for you to watch while the 4th season is in the works.

House, MD: this award-winning show follows Dr. House, a physician who is
addicted to painkillers. He is a genius who solves the most dif cult cases. Be
prepared for a lot of sarcasm! The show ended in 2012 after eight seasons.

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If you have any recommendations of medical TV shows, feel free to share them
down below in the comments!

Being able to talk about our body parts and health symptoms in English can save
your life. Literally, save your life. We hope this vocabulary of body parts in English
and explanations about diseases and medicines are useful to you. Now you can
book that trip without worrying about getting sick while abroad. Don’t forget to
buy good travel health insurance though!

#body and health #idioms

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