cadaver
Americannoun
-
cadavers
plural
noun
Usage
What is a cadaver? A cadaver is a dead body, especially a dead human body. The word cadaver is sometimes used interchangeably with the word corpse, but cadaver is especially used in a scientific context to refer to a body that is the subject of scientific study or medical use, such as one that will be dissected. It’s sometimes used as a modifier (adjective) in phrases that involve cadavers. For example, cadaver tissue is tissue that has been harvested from a donor body. A cadaver dog is a dog that has been specially trained to track the scent of dead bodies in searches for missing persons. Example: The cadavers are carefully preserved before they are prepared for dissection.
Synonym Usage
See body.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of cadaver
1350–1400; Middle English < Latin cadāver dead body, corpse; akin to cadere to fall, perish ( see decay, chance)
Explanation
A cadaver is a dead human body used in scientific or medical research. If you are dead, you are a corpse, but if Dr. Frankenstein robs your grave so he can use your body for research, you become a cadaver. Umm... congratulations? Cadaver comes from the Latin verb, cadere, which means “to fall." Its English origins refer to soldiers who died in battle, i.e. the fallen. Dissection of a cadaver is a major rite of passage for medical school students––some have been known to run from the room and throw up — though most surprise themselves.
Vocabulary lists containing cadaver
Walk Two Moons
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Persepolis
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The Hot Zone
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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:
When the mummy was found in 1991, it was initially treated as a normal cadaver.
From Barron's ● Jun. 3, 2026
The earl of Arundel’s tomb expresses the grim realities beneath the era’s facade of chivalry: Above, he is depicted resplendent in full armor; below, as a gaunt cadaver.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 11, 2026
After the finding, additional search and rescue teams were called to the area, as well as four cadaver dogs, but officials said no further evidence was located.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 19, 2025
Several generations may occur in the insect's cadaver until the juvenile worms emerge into the environment to infect other insects with bacteria.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 15, 2025
It was yellow, and parts of it had liquefied—it looked like the liver of a cadaver.
From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston
Much of early topographical anatomy – the careful mapping of structures in relation to one another – depended on cadavers obtained through grave robbery.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 21, 2026
However, some of this research -- particularly one claiming to have found a plastic spoon's worth of microplastic in the brains of cadavers -- has recently come under stinging criticism from scientists.
From Barron's ● Jan. 27, 2026
Dr. Zoubi stored the cadavers in the hospital’s morgue for two weeks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 19, 2025
In the experiment, human blood was used in four different cadavers.
From BBC ● Nov. 10, 2025
He was a born anatomist and so devoted to his studies that he sometimes illicitly borrowed limbs, organs, and other parts from cadavers and took them home for leisurely dissection.
From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson
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.
