cadaver
noun
Simple meaning
The dead body of a human being.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kuhdaverSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
kəˈdævɚ
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
literarymedicine
The dead body of a human being
“The cadaver was intended for dissection.”
literarymedicine
A dead body; especially the corpse of a human to be dissected.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient
- Frequency
- Rare
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: The dead body of a human being
Used this way, cadaver is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a clinical use: it belongs to medical description, where it is factual rather than emotive.
“The cadaver was intended for dissection.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Literary and expressive
Where it naturally appears
- Medicine/healthcare
- Science
- Technical/specialist writing
- Literature/storytelling
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use cadaver
- “The cadaver was intended for dissection.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: dead body of a human being
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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.