autopsy
noun · verb
Simple meaning
An examination and dissection of a dead body to determine cause of death or the changes produced by disease.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
awtahpseeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɔtɑpsi
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
An examination and dissection of a dead body to determine cause of death or the changes produced by disease
A dissection performed on a cadaver to find possible cause(s) of death.
figuratively
An after-the-fact examination, especially of the causes of a failure.
verb
transitive
To perform an after-the-fact analysis of, especially of a failure.
Perform an autopsy on a dead body; do a post-mortem
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An examination and dissection of a dead body to determine cause of death or the changes produced by disease
Used this way, autopsy is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It carries more force than its gentler alternatives. It turns up most in medicine or healthcare and personal or emotional discussion contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Strong
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Everyday but emotionally strong
Where it naturally appears
- Medicine/healthcare
- Personal/emotional discussion
- Literature/storytelling
Nearby words
- necropsy , a specialist term, precise but narrower
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: examination and dissection of a dead body to determine cause of death
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.