post-mortem
3
5.8
- noun
- /ˌpoʊstˈmɔrtəm/
- Specialized
:
autopsia
- A post-mortem examination found she had septicaemia, a form of blood poisoning, and an E. coli infection.
- post-mortem examination
Examples
-
The post-mortem on Savita determined that the cause of death was "septicaemia, a form of blood poisoning, and an E. coli infection."
Blog text (29) -
A post-mortem examination is scheduled for today.
Blog text (5) -
The post-mortem findings were poorly presented and seemed inconclusive.
Academic text (2001) -
Because of the high cost of photography, post-mortem photographs were, in many cases, the only photograph a family had of the deceased.
Blog text (1) -
The detective requested a post-mortem examination to determine the cause of death.
-
After the accident, the authorities ordered a post-mortem to investigate what happened.
-
The medical team conducted a thorough post-mortem to analyze the effects of the disease.
Synonyms
421
5.3
A check of a dead body to find the cause of death
20
6.8
A medical examination of a dead body to find the cause of death
2
9.9
A careful cutting open and check of a dead animal to find cause of death
2
5.8
A medical check that cuts open a dead body to find the cause of death
Cutting open a dead body to find the cause of death
An examination of a dead body to find the cause of death
Surface Forms
Morphology
post-mortem = mortem (transparent) = post + mortem
The autopsy sense is a literal 'after-death' meaning derived from post- + mortem and is directly understandable from the components.
Etymology
Post-mortem comes from the Latin parts post- meaning 'after' and mortem meaning 'death'. So a post-mortem is an examination done 'after death' to find the cause of death.