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
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
That contact, however, did not give Gates or his business permission to release the postmortem examination, its results, nor photographs or video taken from it to the public.
—Marlene Lenthang, NBC News, 18 Mar. 2024
See All Example Sentences for postmortem examination
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
That contact, however, did not give Gates or his business permission to release the postmortem examination, its results, nor photographs or video taken from it to the public.
—Marlene Lenthang, NBC News, 18 Mar. 2024
See All Example Sentences for postmortem examination
Recent Examples of Synonyms for postmortem examination
autopsy
Noun
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An autopsy ruled Suzanne Morphew's death a homicide with butorphanol, azaperone, and medetomidine intoxication in her body, according to CBI. June 20, 2025: Barry Morphew was indicted by a grand jury charging him with first-degree murder in the death of his wife, Suzanne Morphew.—
Adam Sabes,
FOXNews.com,
26 June 2025
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An autopsy later revealed that O’Keefe had died from blunt force trauma and hypothermia.—
Sean Neumann,
People.com,
25 June 2025
Cite this Entry
“Postmortem examination.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/postmortem%20examination. Accessed 3 Jul. 2025.
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