autopsy Hear it!

autopsy Definition

au·top·sy (ô′täp′sē, ôt′əp sē)

noun pl. -·sies

  1. an examination and dissection of a dead body to discover the cause of death, damage done by disease, etc.; postmortem
  2. a detailed critical analysis of a book, play, etc., or of some event

Etymology: ML & Gr autopsia, a seeing with one's own eyes < Gr autos, self + opsis, a sight < ōps, eye

transitive verb -·sied, -·sy·ing

to examine (a body) in this manner

autopsy Synonyms

autopsy

n.

post-mortem examination, post-mortem, dissection, necropsy, pathological examination of the dead; see also examination 3.

autopsy Law Definition

n

The post-mortem examination of a human body, including its dissection and the removal and inspection of the major organs, to determine the cause of death.
autopsy Usage Examples

Preposition: of

  • body: Russian forces found the remains and conducted the autopsy of the bodies the following month, said Prof Perrier.

Converse of object

  • perform: Do you have a facility where we can perform an autopsy?
  • conduct: The Medical Examiner's Office will conduct an autopsy.
  • begin: At precisely the same moment, in London, Prof Von Hagans began the first public autopsy for 170 years.
  • do: I invite you to join with us in doing an autopsy on the life of the Lord Jesus.
  • have: SKINNER: Don't you have an autopsy to do first?
  • say: She said the autopsy had turned up something really strange.

Preposition: on

  • body: The AB version starts with a prolog of two men going to do an autopsy on the body of our hero Waldemar Daninsky.

Adjective modifier

  • coronial: The Organizational Questionnaire was designed to gather information about the facilities that are available to pathologists to perform coronial autopsies.
  • alien: Is it just me or does that sound very alien autopsy?
  • human: And with modern imaging technology, we need no longer even wait for human autopsy to find out what is wrong and where.
  • public: At precisely the same moment, in London, Prof Von Hagans began the first public autopsy for 170 years.
  • psychological: Rachel's safe, predictable existence is shaken up by an invitation to conduct a psychological autopsy on a colleague, Alix Price.
  • full: After her death they would perform a full autopsy and use her brain to further the study of dementia.

Modifies a noun

  • specimen: The morphological introductions, and all the autopsy specimens, are demonstrated and discussed by Professor Anderson.
  • finding: REYES: I wanted to get your opinion on an autopsy finding.
  • report: SCULLY: May we see the autopsy report, please?
  • photo: There are websites devoted to autopsy photos, death scene photos, all sorts of sick stuff.
  • study: Twenty seven young people ( 25 males, 2 females ) were the subjects of the psychological autopsy study.
  • rate: The decline in the hospital autopsy rate threatens this role.