What does the suffix CIDAL indicate?

What does the suffix CIDAL indicate?

• A. Killing
• B. Across
• C. Three
• D. Together, With

Answer: (A)

CIDAL means killing. In medical terms, adjectives ending in -cidal describe agents that cause death of a target organism—for example, bactericidal kills bacteria, virucidal kills viruses, fungicidal kills fungi. The root cid- comes from a Latin root meaning to kill, and the -al ending makes it an adjective indicating the action. This is different from terms that would mean across, three, or together, which use other prefixes like trans-, tri-, or con-/syn-. So CIDAL specifically conveys the idea of killing.

CIDAL means killing. In medical terms, adjectives ending in -cidal describe agents that cause death of a target organism—for example, bactericidal kills bacteria, virucidal kills viruses, fungicidal kills fungi. The root cid- comes from a Latin root meaning to kill, and the -al ending makes it an adjective indicating the action. This is different from terms that would mean across, three, or together, which use other prefixes like trans-, tri-, or con-/syn-. So CIDAL specifically conveys the idea of killing.