as in autopsy
examination of a dead body especially to find out the cause of death
a coroner performed the postmortem examination with painstaking thoroughness
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Recent Examples of postmortem examination
Detective Superintendent Mike Brown of Suffolk Police said during a coroner's inquest in Ipswich on Friday, Oct. 4, that the 59-year-old was determined to have drowned following a postmortem examination, the BBC and The Guardian report.
—
Abigail Adams, People.com, 4 Oct. 2024
The victims, including American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, were killed on the evening of Aug. 29 in Rafah’s Tal Al Sultan neighborhood, the Israel Defense Forces said, citing postmortem examinations of the bodies.
—Raf Sanchez, NBC News, 10 Sep. 2024
Smith was pronounced dead and taken to the Marin County coroner’s office for a postmortem examination, officials said.
—Caroline Petrow-Cohen, Los Angeles Times, 4 May 2024
This position is unlike families of other late football stars — including Frank Gifford, Mike Webster and Ken Stabler — who consented to postmortem examinations of their brains to confirm CTE.
—Martha Ross, The Mercury News, 15 Apr. 2024
See All Example Sentences for postmortem examination
Abigail Adams, People.com, 4 Oct. 2024
The victims, including American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, were killed on the evening of Aug. 29 in Rafah’s Tal Al Sultan neighborhood, the Israel Defense Forces said, citing postmortem examinations of the bodies.
—Raf Sanchez, NBC News, 10 Sep. 2024
Smith was pronounced dead and taken to the Marin County coroner’s office for a postmortem examination, officials said.
—Caroline Petrow-Cohen, Los Angeles Times, 4 May 2024
This position is unlike families of other late football stars — including Frank Gifford, Mike Webster and Ken Stabler — who consented to postmortem examinations of their brains to confirm CTE.
—Martha Ross, The Mercury News, 15 Apr. 2024
See All Example Sentences for postmortem examination
Recent Examples of Synonyms for postmortem examination
autopsy
Noun
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An autopsy showed she had been shot seven times at close range, court records show, WIBC reports.—
KC Baker,
PEOPLE,
25 Sep. 2025
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Police said that the child's identity would be released after an autopsy is finalized and family notifications are complete.—
Meriam Bouarrouj,
NBC news,
25 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Postmortem examination.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/postmortem%20examination. Accessed 29 Sep. 2025.
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