Medical Terminology: Combining Forms, Suffixes, and Prefixes for Healthcare Students Practice Test

The suffix that communicates breaking or destruction is -clast, coming from the Greek klastos meaning broken. It shows up in terms like osteoclast, where the suffix indicates a cell that breaks down bone tissue. In contrast, -drome points to running or a running-together pattern (as in syndrome), -asthenia means weakness, and -itis means inflammation. So -clast is the best choice because it directly conveys breaking or breaking down in tissue.