antemortem

American  

[an-tee-mawr-tuhm] / ˌæn tiˈmɔr təm /

Or ante-mortem,

adjective

1. before death.

   She made an antemortem confession.

   In commercial sheep flocks, diagnosis of endometritis is seldom made antemortem, and treatment is generally impractical.

---

Etymology

Origin of antemortem

Borrowed into English from Latin around 1880–85

Example Sentences

Work is divided into two buckets: "postmortem" – analyzing remains – and "antemortem" – gathering information from surviving relatives.

From Reuters • Aug. 20, 2023

Ploch said "there was no evidence of antemortem injury, such as manual strangulation, an assault or altercation, sharp, blunt or gunshot injury, infection, tumor, natural disease, congenital abnormality, or significant drug intoxication."

From Fox News • Oct. 27, 2021

The forum at Howard, as it turns out, was an antemortem, an examination of the factors that would contribute to protests and destruction only days away.

From Washington Post • May 1, 2015

"The report suggests antemortem hanging, which means the girls probably committed suicide," said Saxena, the police chief.

From The Guardian • May 29, 2014

Hanford suggests that this was an instance of antemortem digestion of the stomach which physiologists claim is impossible.

From Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine by Pyle, Walter L. (Walter Lytle)