corpse
Americannoun
-
corpses
plural
-
a dead body, usually of a human being.
- Synonyms:
- cadaver
-
something no longer useful or viable.
rusting corpses of old cars.
-
Obsolete. a human or animal body, whether alive or dead.
noun
verb
Synonym Usage
See body.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of corpse
First recorded in 1225–75; Middle English corps; originally spelling variant of cors ( see corse) but the p is now sounded
Explanation
Another name for a dead body is corpse. You might hear the word on TV crime shows, but a corpse doesn't have to be a crime victim, just any lifeless body. The words corpse and "corps" are often confused, and with good reason — both came from the Latin word corpus, meaning "body," and up until the 19th Century, both referred to a dead person. Around that time, the word with the "e" at the end was established as the word for a person's remains, while the other spelling was relegated to a "body" of people working together or in a military division, and very much alive!
Vocabulary lists containing corpse
Body Language: Corp ("Body")
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The Westing Game
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Beowulf vocabulary
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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:
Two corpse flowers will bloom soon, with one making its public debut.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026
She also believes general awareness of the corpse flower increases each summer.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026
In Operation Mincemeat, the British planted a corpse with fake top-secret documents implying an Allied invasion of Greece and Sardinia to provide cover for their Sicily campaign.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 12, 2026
Not one, but two rare corpse flowers are set to bloom at the Huntington in the coming days, with one of them making its first-ever public bloom.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2026
“Tenorio has taken the body into town, and like the mad man that he is, he has stretched out the corpse on the bar of his saloon!”
From "Bless Me, Ultima" by Rudolfo Anaya
Burials must be strictly supervised as the virus spreads by contact with bodily fluids, meaning corpses can remain contagious.
From Barron's ● Aug. 24, 2026
Families in eastern Congo traditionally wash and bury their dead themselves, but the corpses of Ebola victims are highly infectious.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026
"Loved ones are throwing themselves at the bodies, touching the corpses... while organising mourning rituals bringing together loads of people", Jean Marie Ezadri, a civil society leader in Ituri, told AFP last week.
From Barron's ● May 25, 2026
A preliminary investigation shows it may be a case of an "unlawful disposal of unclaimed corpses", it added.
From BBC ● Apr. 19, 2026
During his own medical education Holmes had seen firsthand how desperate schools were to acquire corpses, whether freshly dead or skeletonized.
From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
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.
