autopsy
Americannoun
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autopsies
plural
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inspection and dissection of a body after death, as for determination of the cause of death; postmortem examination.
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an analysis of something after it has been done or made.
verb (used with object)
noun
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Also called: necropsy. postmortem examination. dissection and examination of a dead body to determine the cause of death
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an eyewitness observation
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any critical analysis
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of autopsy
1645–55; (< Middle French autopsie ) < Greek autopsía a seeing with one's own eyes, equivalent to aut- aut- + óps ( is ) -opsis + -ia -y 3
Compare meaning
How does autopsy compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
An autopsy is the dissection of a dead human body to figure out the cause of death. If you watch crime shows on TV, you've probably seen hundreds of 'em. The word autopsy comes from the Greek, meaning "to see with one's own eyes." Many cultures thought it was sacrilegious to mar the human body, because the dead person would need it in the afterlife (you don't want to be hanging out for eternity with your pals while your intestines are flapping around your ankles). Autopsy is used interchangeably with the term post-mortem, Latin for "after-death."
Vocabulary lists containing autopsy
To Thine Own Self Be True: Auto
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Into the Wild
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Common Senses: Op, Ops, Opt ("Sight")
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The autopsy report said investigators used dental image comparisons to identify the body, which was severely decomposed.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026
After researchers accounted for factors including age, education, genetics, race and hypertension, hormone therapy use was associated with 35% lower odds of showing signs of Alzheimer's disease at autopsy.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 14, 2026
Her autopsy listed obesity, diabetes, and elevated environmental temperature as possible contributors.
From Slate ● Jul. 31, 2026
Ms. Borgman doesn’t—and likely wouldn’t—make use of the recently released, gruesomely detailed autopsy reports on the killings, documentation that was probably unavailable during production anyway.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
Less than twenty-four hours after landing in Fairbanks, Carine and Sam flew on to Anchorage, where Chris’s body had been cremated following the autopsy at the Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory.
From "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer
The Texas Newsroom obtained autopsies for prisoners named in the litigation, and three of those reports named heat as a contributing factor in the deaths.
From Slate ● Jul. 31, 2026
Last week authorities in the South-East Asian country said they couldn't determine if the deaths "were caused by the actions of any individual or by any particular cause, because no autopsies were conducted".
From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2026
"This is because the authorities were not permitted to conduct autopsies on the bodies of the deceased, and therefore lacked the forensic evidence necessary to determine the cause of death," it said.
From Barron's ● Jul. 18, 2026
Advocates and industry officials alike say the CSB, though understaffed and lacking enforcement power, has been a crucial watchdog doing autopsies of catastrophes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026
Half of all migrants found “drowned,” autopsies reveal, died before ever entering the water, says Nuevo Laredo human rights activist Raymundo Ramos Vasquez.
From "Enrique's Journey" by Sonia Nazario
Identified tentatively as John or Jane Does, the bodies will be transported to the medical examiner’s offices near downtown Los Angeles to be autopsied, Ukpo said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 9, 2025
In 2012, the team said it received “problematic” documents from coroners detailing how one infant wasn’t autopsied until after its body was embalmed and how another’s death certificate didn’t match what the autopsy found.
From Salon ● Dec. 3, 2024
The bill will not effect how bodies are processed when involved in a criminal case, such as when a body must be autopsied.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 12, 2024
Since July 2021, Dr Fortun has autopsied the remains of more than 90 victims, and discovered multiple inconsistencies.
From BBC ● Jan. 3, 2024
Griffith autopsied the mice and found that the rough bacteria had changed: they had acquired the smooth coat—the virulence-determining factor—merely by contact with the debris from the dead bacteria.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Dr. Henry C. Sweany of Chicago, after autopsying 700 patients whose life-long histories he knew, was convinced that in about half of the adults who die of tuberculosis, the childhood infection flared up.
From Time Magazine Archive
University of Chicago pediatric neurologist Dr. Peter Huttenlocher has chronicled this extraordinary epoch in brain development by autopsying the brains of infants and young children who have died unexpectedly.
From Time Magazine Archive
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
