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Glite Dictionary
🩺 An autopsy 🔍 A review meeting 🩺 After-death check 🔍 After-event review
postmortem

postmortem

1 7.4
Happening after someone has died or after an event for review
  • adjective
  • /poʊstˈmɔrtəm/
translation icon : postmortem
  • After the accident, the team held a postmortem to discuss what went wrong.

Examples

  • M'Call's account of the Bosomworths' demise must have stoked the imaginations of other writers, who sometimes elaborated on this detail and worked it into a story of postmortem sexual impropriety.

    Academic text (2015)

  • The doctor conducted a postmortem examination to determine the cause of death.

  • The investigative report included a postmortem analysis of the failed project.

Synonyms

post mortem
vspostmortem
  • Jargon
1 6.0

A meeting after a project or event to discuss what went well and how to improve

also means actions occurring after death not just event reviews
postmortal
vspostmortem
9.9

Happening after a person dies

also refers to reviews or analyses after events not only death

Compounds

postmortem examination
  • NSFW
2 5.8

A medical check that cuts open a dead body to find the cause of death

Surface Forms

postmortem positive

Morphology

postmortem = mortem (semi-transparent) = post + mortem

The figurative sense ('analysis after an event') extends from 'post-' + 'mortem', but learners need to generalize from the literal 'after death' sense.

Etymology

Postmortem comes from the Latin parts post- 'after' and mortem 'death'. A helpful way to remember the adjective use is to think of it as an 'after-death' look, used when people describe careful checks or reports made after an event.