-tomy

(redirected from -otomy)
Also found in: Medical.

-tomy

suff.

Act of cutting; incision: gastrotomy.

[New Latin -tomia, from Greek -tomiā, from tomos, a cutting, from temnein, to cut; see tem- in Indo-European roots.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

-tomy

n combining form

(Surgery) indicating a surgical cutting of a specified part or tissue: lobotomy.

[from Greek -tomia; see -tome]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

-tomy

a combining form meaning “division” (trichotomy), “cutting, dissection, surgical incision” (laparotomy; lobotomy), “excision” of an object (lithotomy).

[< Greek -tomia; see -tome, -y³]

References in periodicals archive ?

-otomy A procedure that ends in -tomy or -otomy is one that involves cutting, but no removal.