Glossary
Anesthesiologist Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential anesthesiologist terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key anesthesiologist vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in anesthesiologist training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- ASA class
- Surgical risk category.
- Board certification
- Specialty credential.
- Capnography
- Exhaled carbon dioxide monitoring.
- Care team model
- Physicians supervising anesthetists.
- Difficult airway
- An airway that is hard to secure.
- Emergence
- Waking from anesthesia.
- Epidural
- Pain relief through a spinal catheter.
- Induction
- Starting anesthesia.
- Intubation
- Placing a breathing tube.
- MAC
- Monitored anesthesia care.
- Malignant hyperthermia
- A dangerous drug reaction.
- Nerve block
- Numbing a specific nerve.
- PACU
- Recovery unit.
- Residency
- Specialty training.
- Spinal anesthesia
- Numbing below the waist via the spine.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Anesthesiologist practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Anesthesiologist training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.