postmortem

[ pohst-mawr-tuhm ]

adjective

1. of, relating to, or occurring in the time following death.
2. of or relating to examination of the body after death.
3. occurring after the end of something; after the event:

   a postmortem criticism of a television show.

adverb

1. after death:

   Pacemakers have to be removed postmortem from bodies that are going to be cremated.

noun

1. Medicine/Medical. a postmortem examination; autopsy.
2. an evaluation or discussion occurring after the end or fact of something:

   to do a postmortem on the decision of a court.

3. Cards. a discussion of the bidding or playing of a previous hand.

postmortem

/ pəʊstˈmɔːtəm /

adjective

1. prenominal occurring after death

noun

1. analysis or study of a recently completed event

   a postmortem on a game of chess

2. See postmortem examination
   See postmortem examination

postmortem

1. Autopsy; figuratively, any analysis that follows an event: “When the convention is over, we'll have a postmortem to find ways of improving it for next year.” From Latin , meaning “after death.”

Word History and Origins

Origin of postmortem¹

First recorded in 1725–35, postmortem is from Latin post mortem “after death”

Word History and Origins

Origin of postmortem¹

C18: from Latin, literally: after death

Example Sentences

Using the postmortem frontal cortex samples from three healthy individuals, they applied the method to dozens of neurons and established that up to 41% of the cells had either missing or extra gene copies.

From MIT Technology Review

Indeed, researchers would later confirm the importance of postmortem infections in Ebola’s spread.

From Quanta Magazine

They realized that if postmortem transmission — from the handling of the deceased during funerals — was a primary source of new Ebola infections, then most experts were probably assuming generation intervals for the disease that were too short.

From Quanta Magazine

One 1971 survey in the British Medical Journal found that close to half the widows in Wales and England had seen their mates postmortem.

From Popular-Science

There was a postmortem conversation after the seven-week program ended, but this publisher described it as “informal” and that the platform didn’t go in depth on the program’s results.

From Digiday

The gloomy postmortem has begun, but team manager Roy Hodgson is not resigning.

From The Daily Beast

New postmortem tweeting projects are aiming to push the boundaries of life, death, and social media.

From The Daily Beast

Postmortem examinations later showed no signs of assault or defensive wounds on her body.

From The Daily Beast

“I have not seen an honest postmortem assessment yet,” she told me.

From The Daily Beast

In the end I might leave one gleaming flake or so amidst the slag heaps for a moment of postmortem sympathy.

From Project Gutenberg

I think—yes—in that we would have, particularly, postmortem examined the body much more carefully than we did.

From Project Gutenberg

The failure to obtain secretin in some cases they claim is probably due to the rapid postmortem degeneration of diabetic tissue.

From Project Gutenberg

It was a constant source of surprise to his students to note how well the master's diagnosis agreed with postmortem findings.

From Project Gutenberg

Observations made postmortem showed that his clinical observations were justified by the differences observed in the organ.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• posthumous