Meaning & use
melan/o
A combining form meaning black or dark, used in medical terms related to melanin and pigmentation.
See it in a sentence
The condition melanoma, a serious skin cancer, gets its name from the prefix melan/o.
Doctors use melan/o in words like melanocyte, a cell that produces the dark pigment melanin.
A note on using this word
Melan/o comes from the Greek word for black; it appears in many medical terms describing pigment or dark coloring.
Words with a similar meaning
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