-plasty

The combining form –plasty is used like a suffix meaning “molding, formation.” In medical terms, –plasty is often used in the sense of “surgical repair, plastic surgery.” Contrary to popular belief, the plastic in plastic surgery does not refer to the use of the material plastic. Rather, plastic in this sense means “the art of modeling figures.”

The form –plasty comes from Greek –plastia, meaning “formed” or “molded.” Find out how –plastia is related to plasma, plaster, and plastic at our entry for each word.

What are variants of –plasty?

The form -plasty does not have any variants. However, it is related to the forms –plasm, –plasia, –plasy, –plast, and –plastic. Want to know more? Read our Words That Use articles for those forms.

An example of a word you may have encountered that features –plasty is rhinoplasty, “plastic surgery of the nose.”

As you may have guessed, the form rhino– means “nose,” from Greek rhī́s. The form –plasty means “plastic surgery.” Rhinoplasty literally translates to “plastic surgery of the nose.”

What are some words that use the combining form –plasty?

• anaplasty (using the equivalent form of -plasty in Greek)
• arterioplasty
• bronchoplasty
• enteroplasty
• genioplasty
• homoplasty
• hymenoplasty
• vaginoplasty

What are some other forms that –plasty may be commonly confused with?

• -phily
• -plasy

The combining form entero– means “intestine.” With that in mind, what does enteroplasty mean?