Which combining form denotes hardness or sclerosis?

• A. aut/o
• B. later/o
• C. scler/o
• D. polyp/o

Answer: (C)

Hardness or sclerosis is indicated by the combining form scler/o. It comes from the Greek skleros meaning hard, so it appears in terms like sclerosis (the process of hardening), scleroderma (hardening of the skin), and sclerotic (relating to hardening). The other roots point to unrelated ideas—aut/o means self, later/o means side, and polyp/o means polyp—so they don’t convey hardness.