Which combining form is used to refer to the bronchus?

• A. Bronchiol/o
• B. Bronch/o
• C. Bronchiole
• D. Bronchitis

Answer: (B)

In medical terms, a combining form is the root with a linking vowel used to connect to endings or other word parts. The structure that refers to the main airway—the bronchus—is bronch/o. This combining form shows up in terms like bronchitis (inflammation of a bronchus) and bronchial (pertaining to a bronchus), illustrating how bronch/o is used to talk about the large airways.

Bronchiol/o would refer to the bronchioles, the smaller airways; bronchiole is the actual small airway itself rather than a combining form; bronchitis is a disease name that uses the same bronch/o stem but isn’t the combining form itself. So bronch/o is the correct combining form for the bronchus.