The combining form used to refer to uvula and grape-like clusters or staphylococcus is which?

• A. Infer/o
• B. Nat/o
• C. Staphyl/o
• D. Chlor/o

Answer: (C)

The main idea here is recognizing a combining form that means grape-like clusters. Staphyl/o comes from the Greek word for grape, and it’s used to describe things that appear in grape-like clusters—most famously the bacteria Staphylococcus. It’s also the combining form that appears in terms related to the uvula in certain medical words. So, staphyl/o is the form that covers both the uvula and the grape-cluster concept. The other roots point to completely different ideas—infer/o relates to below or inferior, nat/o to birth, and chlor/o to green—so they don’t fit the meaning described.