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Some common medical terms may be more confusing than doctors think

Test your know-how with our quiz on five phrases you might hear in your doctor’s office

a medical professional in pink scrubs holds and points to a tablet with an x-way and talks to a patient

Sometimes doctors use medical jargon that’s tough for patients to decipher.

Visoot Uthairam/Moment/Getty

By Meghan Rosen

- More than 2 years ago

Medical language can sometimes stump patients. And some common sayings are straight-up head-scratchers.

Calling a patient’s neurological exam “grossly intact,” for example, might not sound so great, says Michael Pitt, a pediatrician at the University of Minnesota Medical School in Minneapolis.