post-mortem

Language: en

🇺🇸 /poʊˈstmɔrtɛm/

📖 Definitions

  1. noun
    A medical examination of a dead body to determine the cause of death; an autopsy.; A detailed analysis or examination of an event or project after it has concluded, especially to identify what went wrong.
  2. adjective
    Relating to or occurring after death.; Relating to or occurring after an event has concluded.

🔗 Details

Word forms

countable Plural: post-mortems

Collocations

conduct a post-mortemperform a post-mortempost-mortem examinationpost-mortem analysispost-mortem reportpost-mortem findings

Derivatives

postmortem

Synonyms

autopsynecropsyexaminationanalysisreviewdebrief

Antonyms

pre-mortem

Commonly confused

autopsy
EN: 'Autopsy' is strictly a medical examination of a corpse; 'post-mortem' can refer to both a medical examination and a figurative analysis of any past event.
pre-mortem
EN: 'Pre-mortem' is a prospective analysis done before an event to anticipate failures; 'post-mortem' is a retrospective analysis done after.

Spelling tips

EN: Can be written as 'post-mortem' (hyphenated, most common in British English), 'postmortem' (one word, common in American English), or 'post mortem' (two words, especially as a noun phrase). All three forms are accepted.

💬 Examples

  1. The coroner ordered a post-mortem to determine whether the death was accidental or criminal.

  2. The team held a post-mortem after the product launch failed to meet expectations.

  3. The post-mortem examination revealed traces of poison in the bloodstream.

  4. The post-mortem report highlighted several critical errors in the planning phase.