HESI A2 · Vocabulary section
HESI A2 Vocabulary Practice Test: Health-Care Words, Body Terms, Context and Synonyms
Practice set 1 has 20 HESI A2 vocabulary questions on general academic words used in health care, body and health terms, words in a sentence that gives context, and synonyms, on an exam-style screen. Check each answer to see the meaning and a note on every option; a word list with plain meanings follows further down. Schools publish the section's details (Tarrant County College lists 55 vocabulary questions). These questions are free, with no sign-up.
Practice sets
HESI A2 vocabulary practice sets
Five sets of vocabulary questions. Each opens on an exam-style test screen, one question at a time: answer, select Check answer, and see the correct answer, the explanation and a note on every option before you go on. Untimed, and your progress is saved in this browser.
20 questions
20 questions
20 questions
20 questions
20 questions
Set 1 spreads its 20 questions over four topics; the topic cards below show how many fall in each group. The vocabulary section of Practice Exam 1 suggests about 60 seconds a question; your school or testing site sets the real timing (Tarrant County College allows 5 hours for its five sections). When the sets feel easy, take the full-length HESI A2 Practice Exam 1, with each section on its own clock.
Sample HESI A2 vocabulary questionFrom practice set 1, with the answer and a note on every option
The team must prioritize the tasks before beginning work. What does prioritize mean here?
Answer: Rank by importance
Prioritize means decide what deserves attention first. It ranks tasks rather than requiring equal time or simultaneous completion.
Complete at the same time: This conflicts with establishing an order among tasks.
Divide into equal parts: This concerns size of portions rather than importance.
Rank by importance: Correct. Prioritize means establish an order of relative importance or urgency.
Assign without an order: This removes the ranking that prioritize requires.
General academic words used in health care · General academic vocabulary used in health care (e.g. adverse, concise, exacerbate, lucid)
Content
What the HESI A2 vocabulary section covers
Schools describe the A2 vocabulary section on their own pages. The practice sets here draw on the four kinds of question below.
- Questions
- 50
- In Practice Exam 1 here; Tarrant County College lists 55
- Suggested time
- 50 min
- Your school or testing site sets the limit
- Per question
- 60 s
- At the suggested time
- Calculator
- None
- In this section of the practice exam
General academic words used in health care
Formal words for everyday ideas, the kind that fill textbooks, reports and chart notes: subsequent for later, mitigate for lessen, definitive for settled. Learn each with its opposite and a near neighbor, because the wrong options here are often one or the other.
- General academic vocabulary used in health care (e.g. adverse, concise, exacerbate, lucid)
Body and health words
Words a nursing student meets early: positions and directions such as prone and distal, what a nurse observes such as pallor and edema, and what a nurse does such as palpate and ambulate. The Community College of Rhode Island's tutoring center says the section is general vocabulary rather than highly technical medical terms.
- Body and health words a nursing student meets early (e.g. distended, lethargic, void, palpate)
Words in a sentence that gives context
Most questions here put the word in a sentence and ask what it means there. The sentence may define it, give an example of it or set it against a contrast (but, although, rather than), so read the whole sentence before you look at the options.
- Words in a sentence that gives context
Synonyms
Some questions ask for the word closest in meaning, at times with a short phrase that fixes the sense. The right option could replace the word without changing the sentence; an option that is only related to it, such as a cause or an effect, is the usual trap in these sets.
- Synonyms
What schools say about the vocabulary section
| Source | What its page says |
|---|---|
| Tarrant County College | Vocabulary is one of four sections of 55 questions, beside reading comprehension, grammar and math; anatomy and physiology has 30, and the exam lasts 5 hours. |
| Central New Mexico Community College | Calls the section vocabulary and general knowledge, one of six. It allows no outside materials such as books or notebooks, and applicants to its nursing program need 75% on every sub-test and a 75% composite. |
| Germanna Community College (Academic Center for Excellence) | Its guide (updated January 2023) puts vocabulary with reading comprehension in an English part, 55 questions each, and describes it as working out the meaning of general English and nursing vocabulary words. |
| Community College of Rhode Island (Tutoring Center) | Says the section focuses on general vocabulary rather than highly technical medical terms, much of it common in health-care settings, and advises working with a word list and memorizing it. |
Sources: Tarrant County College, HESI A2 Exam Information; Central New Mexico Community College, HESI A2 Exam; Germanna Community College, HESI A2 Nursing Entrance Exam Preparation Guide (PDF, updated January 2023); Community College of Rhode Island Tutoring Center, HESI Vocabulary
Question formats
How HESI A2 vocabulary questions work
Each question here is right or wrong, with no partial credit. In Practice Exam 1 you can flag a question, see which are still blank and go back to any question in the section until you end it. Testing sites differ here: Germanna Community College's guide says its students cannot skip a question or go back to one they have already answered.
| Format | How you answer | In set 1 here |
|---|---|---|
| Multiple choice | Choose the one correct option of four | 20 of 20 |
Every question in set 1 here is multiple choice with four options. Most give a sentence that uses the word and ask what it means there or which word could replace it; the rest ask which option is closest in meaning to the word, on its own or in a short phrase. Some later sets use one word in two sentences and ask for both meanings. Tarrant County College describes its HESI A2 as a computerized multiple-choice exam.
Nothing to look a word up in
Central New Mexico Community College allows no outside materials, books and notebooks included, and hands out only a calculator, pencils and paper; check your own testing site's rules. Whatever this section needs has to be learned beforehand; the Community College of Rhode Island's tutoring center advises working with a word list and memorizing it. The practice sets here have no look-up tool either.
Sources: Central New Mexico Community College, HESI A2 Exam; Community College of Rhode Island Tutoring Center, HESI Vocabulary; Tarrant County College, HESI A2 Exam Information; Germanna Community College, HESI A2 Nursing Entrance Exam Preparation Guide (PDF, updated January 2023)
Method
How to prepare for HESI A2 vocabulary
What to study first and how to pace the section, for vocabulary in particular.
- 01Work from a list, a little every dayLearn about ten words a day, each with its meaning and a sentence of your own, and go back over older words as you add new ones. The list on this page is a place to start; every word you miss in a practice set belongs on it too.
- 02Say the meaning before you read the optionsRead the sentence, cover the options and say in your own words what the word means there. Then pick the option closest to what you said. Reading the options first lets a near miss pull you away from the meaning the sentence gives.
- 03Let the sentence do the workA sentence often settles the meaning with a restatement, an example (such as, for instance) or a contrast (but, although, rather than). In "The first draft was verbose, so the editor cut it to half its length", the cut tells you verbose means wordy.
- 04Break a long word into its partsA prefix, a root and a suffix often spell out the meaning: brady- (slow) + cardi (heart) + -ia (condition) is a slow heart rate, and peri- (around) + cardi (heart) + -itis (inflammation) is inflammation of the sac around the heart. The word-part rows of the list below have the common ones.
- 05Put your answer back into the sentenceReplace the word with your choice and read the sentence again. The right option keeps its meaning; a wrong one changes it, often to the opposite (exacerbate where the sentence needs relieve) or to a word that only sits near the right one.
- 06Watch for a second meaningMany words mean one thing in health care and another in everyday speech. Patent means open and unblocked in health care (a patent airway or IV line) but, elsewhere, the sole legal right to make or sell an invention; void as a verb means to pass urine; dressing is a cover for a wound as well as a sauce. Read the sentence to see which meaning it uses.
- 07Pace at about 60 seconds a questionPractice Exam 1 here suggests 50 minutes for 50 vocabulary questions; your school or testing site sets the real timing (Tarrant County College allows 5 hours for its five sections). A word you know takes seconds, so spend the time saved on the sentences you need to read twice, and make your best choice on a word you do not know rather than stall.
Word list
HESI A2 vocabulary list: words by kind, with plain meanings
A study list written for this page, not a list of the words on the test: words of the kinds schools describe for the section, grouped by what they describe, then the word parts that unlock many more. Learn each with a sentence of your own.
| Kind of word | Words and plain meanings |
|---|---|
| Getting worse or better | exacerbate (make worse); aggravate (make more serious); deteriorate (become worse over time); alleviate (relieve, make easier to bear); mitigate (make less severe); ameliorate (make better) |
| Amount and degree | adequate (enough for the need); deficient (lacking something needed); excessive (more than is needed or normal); negligible (too small to matter); copious (large in amount); profuse (plentiful, pouring out freely); minimal (very small, the least possible) |
| Time and frequency | acute (coming on suddenly, often severe and brief); chronic (lasting a long time or coming back often); intermittent (stopping and starting); transient (lasting only a short time); sporadic (happening now and then, irregularly); subsequent (coming after); preliminary (coming before the main part) |
| Certainty and clarity | explicit (stated clearly and in full); implicit (suggested but not stated); ambiguous (open to more than one meaning); equivocal (open to more than one reading, inconclusive); definitive (final, settling the question); tentative (not yet settled); verify (check that something is true); corroborate (back up with more evidence) |
| Judging and reasoning | assess (judge or evaluate); discern (notice, or tell apart); infer (conclude from evidence); deduce (reach a conclusion by reasoning); objective (based on facts, not feelings); subjective (based on a person's own feelings or report); relevant and pertinent (connected to the matter at hand) |
| Acting and following | adhere (stick to a rule or plan); comply (do what is asked or required); administer (give, as a medicine); initiate (begin); terminate (end); facilitate (make easier); impede (hinder); defer (put off until later, or yield to another's judgment) |
| Describing a person | lethargic (drowsy and sluggish); lucid (thinking clearly; also, clearly expressed); coherent (logical and easy to follow); agitated (restless and troubled); ambivalent (having mixed feelings); compliant (following instructions or a treatment plan); vulnerable (open to harm) |
| Positions and directions on the body | prone (lying face down); supine (lying face up); anterior (toward the front); posterior (toward the back); medial (toward the midline); lateral (toward the side); proximal (nearer the trunk or the point of attachment); distal (farther from it); superficial (nearer the surface); bilateral (on both sides) |
| What a nurse observes | pallor (unusual paleness); flushed (reddened); edema (swelling from fluid in the tissues); distended (swollen or stretched outward); diaphoresis (heavy sweating); lesion (an abnormal area of tissue, such as a wound or sore); asymptomatic (without symptoms); afebrile (without fever) |
| What a nurse does | palpate (examine by touch); auscultate (listen to sounds inside the body, usually with a stethoscope); ambulate (walk, or help a patient walk) |
| What the body does | void (pass urine, in nursing notes); ingest (take in by mouth); dilate (widen); constrict (narrow) |
| Prefixes | hyper- (above normal: hypertension); hypo- (below normal: hypoglycemia); tachy- (fast: tachycardia); brady- (slow: bradycardia); dys- (difficult or abnormal: dysphagia, trouble swallowing); a- or an- (without: afebrile, anemia); bi- (two: bilateral); sub- (under: subcutaneous); intra- (within: intravenous); inter- (between: intercostal); peri- (around: pericardium); contra- (against: contraindicated) |
| Suffixes | -itis (inflammation: tonsillitis); -ectomy (surgical removal: appendectomy); -otomy (cutting into: tracheotomy); -algia (pain: neuralgia); -emia (a condition of the blood: anemia); -osis (a condition, often abnormal: cyanosis); -ology (study of: physiology); -scope (instrument for viewing: endoscope) |
| Roots | cardi (heart: cardiac); pulmon and pneum (lung: pulmonary, pneumonia); gastr (stomach: gastric); hepat (liver: hepatic); nephr and ren (kidney: nephron, renal); neur (nerve: neurology); derm (skin: dermatitis); oste (bone: osteoporosis); hem and hemat (blood: hemorrhage, hematoma) |
FAQ
HESI A2 vocabulary: questions people ask
What vocabulary words are on the HESI A2?
How many vocabulary questions are on the HESI A2?
How do you study for HESI A2 vocabulary?
Is the HESI A2 vocabulary section hard?
Are medical terms on the HESI A2 vocabulary section?
What score do you need on HESI A2 vocabulary?
Does the TEAS have a vocabulary section?
Is there a free HESI A2 vocabulary practice test?
Are these real HESI A2 vocabulary questions?
Keep practicing
Next practice exercise
HESI A2 Grammar, practice set 1: 20 questions on the same screen. Take the sections your school requires first, then come back to the one you find hardest.
Pages this page relies on: Tarrant County College, HESI A2 Exam Information; Central New Mexico Community College, HESI A2 Exam; Germanna Community College, HESI A2 Nursing Entrance Exam Preparation Guide (PDF, updated January 2023); Community College of Rhode Island Tutoring Center, HESI Vocabulary; Western Technical College Library, Nursing: TEAS Prep Guide
Checked against the schools' pages and last reviewed November 4, 2026. Found an error? Tell us.