The purpose of this handbook is to show, by means of practical examples, how General English (GE) words and phrazes are used in written Medical English (ME). Thus, it attempts to bridge the gap between general dictionaries and standard medical dictionaries. It is an alphabetical glossary of over 2400 headwords with definitions and over 4000 examples of usage. The emphasis is on the usage patterns of important non-technical or semi-technical words that frequently occur in medical reports. The entries fall into the following groups: words referring to diseases, their signs and symptoms, words referring to treatment, to study design eg protocol, screening, words from related disciplines, common connective words in scientific texts, words that are frequently used in the evaluation of results and words referring to medical communication. These groups also include General English words that have special Medical English meaning. An appendix lists expressions that are usually ambiguous, clumsy, pompous or vogue words and therefore to be avoided. The examples originate from medical articles written by English or American authors for leading medical journals. The book is intended for those who take a special interest in English medical writing - medical research workers, doctors, medical students and translators.