Meaning & use
autopsy
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Meanings
nouncountable
A medical examination of a dead body to find out the cause of death.
Grammar: Countable: 'an autopsy', 'two autopsies'.
Patterns
- perform an autopsy
- conduct an autopsy
- an autopsy on someone
- the autopsy revealed something
The coroner ordered an autopsy to determine the exact cause of death.
The autopsy revealed that the victim had suffered a heart attack.
Families sometimes wait weeks for the results of an autopsy.
nouncountablefigurative
A detailed analysis or review of something that failed, to understand what went wrong.
Grammar: Often used figuratively: 'an autopsy of the campaign'.
Patterns
- an autopsy of something
- conduct an autopsy of something
The book is an autopsy of the company's spectacular collapse.
After the election, the party conducted an autopsy of its failed strategy.
The report reads like an autopsy of the entire project.
verbtransitive
To perform a medical examination on a dead body to determine the cause of death.
Grammar: Takes an object: 'autopsy a body'.
Patterns
- autopsy a body
- autopsy someone
The pathologist autopsied the body the next morning.
Officials decided to autopsy the remains to rule out foul play.
Word forms
| plural | autopsies |
|---|---|
| third person singular | autopsies |
| past tense | autopsied |
| past participle | autopsied |
| -ing form | autopsying |
Common combinations
- perform an autopsy
- The medical examiner performed an autopsy to establish the cause of death.
- autopsy report
- The autopsy report listed the cause of death as drowning.
- autopsy results
- The autopsy results were released to the family.
- order an autopsy
- The judge ordered an autopsy to be carried out immediately.
- autopsy room
- The autopsy room is kept strictly sterile.
Synonyms and how they differ
- post-mortem
- A synonym common in British English; 'autopsy' is more usual in American English.
- necropsy
- Used mainly for animals; 'autopsy' is typically for humans.
Word family
- autopsist noun
- A person who performs autopsies.
- autopsic adjective
- Relating to an autopsy (rare).
Commonly confused: autopsy or biopsy?
autopsy vs biopsy
A biopsy is the removal of tissue from a living person for testing; an autopsy is an examination of a dead body.
Practice
The doctor decided to ___ the body to find out why the patient died.
Choose one answer.
'Autopsy' is the correct verb for a post-mortem examination to determine cause of death. 'Biopsy' is for living tissue, 'dissect' means to cut apart for study, and 'examine' is too general.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “autopsy”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.