corpse

American  

[kawrps] / kɔrps /

noun

• corpses
  plural

1. a dead body, usually of a human being.

   Synonyms:

   cadaver

2. something no longer useful or viable.

   rusting corpses of old cars.

3. Obsolete. a human or animal body, whether alive or dead.

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corpse British  

/ kɔːps /

noun

1. a dead body, esp of a human being; cadaver

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verb

1. slang theatre to laugh or cause to laugh involuntarily or inopportunely while on stage

Synonym Usage

See body.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• corpses
  plural

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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

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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!

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

corpse corpses

But when Henry Clayton’s Armani-clad corpse washes up on the beach, one person is certain he didn’t take his own life.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026

A crowd then gathered around the corpse, singing a dirge in a local Swahili dialect.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026

North Hollywood resident Lilla Saito took two hours off work to witness the corpse flowers for the first time and tracked the livestream every day, “just waiting for it to bloom.”

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

"Why could you not have waited just a few more days, brother Primus?" he asked the corpse at his feet.

From "Stardust" by Neil Gaiman

The army has set up an improvised morgue in Toledo because the city's existing facility could not receive all the corpses.

From Barron's ● Oct. 30, 2026

With many corpses badly disfigured, volunteers said several families had claimed the same body.

From Barron's ● Aug. 30, 2026

Sometimes known as "Doctor Death", he became famous for developing a technique called plastination, by which fluids and fatty tissue in corpses are replaced by rubber and polymers.

From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026

In some cases, relatives flee homes when a family member dies, without informing authorities, leaving highly infectious corpses unattended for days.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 16, 2026

The twenty-five cities were not sited strategically and did not have defensive walls; no evidence of warfare, such as burned buildings or mutilated corpses, has been found.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

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Related Words

• body
• cadaver
• carcass
• remains

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