autopsy

C1 Topic:Health & Medicine

US /ˈɔtɑpsi/ UK /ˈɔːtɒpsi/ See IPA manual

Freq #4597

Meanings

1

noun
a medical examination and dissection of a body after death to determine the cause of death or effects of disease

The autopsy established that the victim had died from internal bleeding.
2

noun
a detailed examination made after an event, especially to discover why something failed

The engineering team conducted an autopsy of the failed launch.
3

verb
to perform an autopsy on a body

The pathologist autopsied the body the following morning.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a medical examination and... postmortemnecropsypostmortem examination

2 noun · a detailed examination made... postmortem review retrospective

3 verb · to perform an autopsy on a... examine dissect

Word family

Derived forms autopsistautopsier

Related forms pathology cadaver postmortem

Etymology

From New Latin autopsia, from Ancient Greek autopsia ("seeing with one's own eyes"), built from autos ("self") + opsis ("sight"). It first meant direct personal observation; the modern medical sense narrowed this to examining a body after death.

Topics

Health & Medicine

External links

# autopsy

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C1
**Part of speech:** noun, verb
**IPA (US):** /ˈɔtɑpsi/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈɔːtɒpsi/
**Frequency rank:** 4597

## Meanings
1. a medical examination and dissection of a body after death to determine the cause of death or effects of disease
2. a detailed examination made after an event, especially to discover why something failed
3. to perform an autopsy on a body

## Examples
- The autopsy established that the victim had died from internal bleeding.
- The engineering team conducted an autopsy of the failed launch.
- The pathologist autopsied the body the following morning.

## Synonyms
- postmortem
- necropsy
- postmortem examination
- retrospective

## Derived Forms
- autopsist
- autopsier

## Related Forms
- pathology
- cadaver
- postmortem

## Etymology
From New Latin autopsia, from Ancient Greek autopsia ("seeing with one's own eyes"), built from autos ("self") + opsis ("sight"). It first meant direct personal observation; the modern medical sense narrowed this to examining a body after death.

## Topics
- Health & Medicine

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