Abstract: As a language marker recording the development history of the western medicine, medical English terminology mirrors the development of medicine from the ancient Greeks to the present. The metaphorical features of the medical English terminology plays a vital role in its formations by metaphors, such as entity and substance metaphor,orientation metaphor and myth metaphor. It is important for the medical students to grasp the mechanism of the metaphorical features in the formation of the medical terminology. The better way in teaching medical terms to medical students is to provide “medical terms scaffolding” for the students, promote their metaphorical thinking ability and raise their metaphorical concept, thus settling the vocabulary learning difficulties where most medical students feel much cornered.

Key words: medical English terminology, metaphor, metaphorical thinking, vocabulary teaching