Meaning & use
posthumous
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Meaning
adjectivebefore a noun
Happening, given or made public after the person it concerns has died.
Grammar: Usually comes before a noun: a posthumous award, not 'the award was posthumous' in everyday speech.
Patterns
- a posthumous award for someone
- posthumous publication of something
The soldier received a posthumous medal for bravery.
Her last novel was a posthumous release, edited by her brother.
The painter achieved posthumous fame decades after he died in poverty.
Common combinations
- posthumous award
- The family accepted the posthumous award on his behalf.
- posthumous publication
- The posthumous publication of her diaries caused a stir.
- posthumous pardon
- The government granted him a posthumous pardon.
- posthumous recognition
- Posthumous recognition came too late to help the inventor.
- posthumous release
- The singer's posthumous release topped the charts.
Synonyms and how they differ
- post-mortem
- Post-mortem usually refers to an examination of a body or a review after a failure, while posthumous describes things done or released after death.
- after-death
- After-death is a plain, rarely used descriptive phrase, whereas posthumous is the standard formal word for honors and publications.
- late
- Late describes a person who has died (the late author), but does not describe events the way posthumous does.
Opposites
Word family
- posthumously adverb
- after someone's death
Commonly confused: posthumous or posthumus?
posthumous vs posthumus
This is a misspelling; the correct form ends in -ous.
Practice
The poet was given a ______ honor, since the committee only met after she had died.
Choose one answer.
Posthumous means occurring after death. The other options are real words but do not describe timing relative to death.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “posthumous”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.