post-mortem
post-mortem — adverb
1. taking place after life has ended, typically in reference to medical or legal pr
taking place after life has ended, typically in reference to medical or legal procedures carried out on a deceased person or animal.
The veterinary team examined the horse post-mortem to rule out any infectious disease.
post-mortem after main verb indicating timing
Tissue samples were taken post-mortem and sent to the laboratory for analysis.
The cause of the whale's death could only be confirmed post-mortem.
Post-mortem, the doctors discovered a rare heart condition that had gone unnoticed during the patient's life.
- after death
less formal; used in everyday speech instead of the Latin term
文法句型
post-mortem + [verb phrase in past tense]
用法筆記
Commonly used in medical, veterinary, and forensic contexts to indicate that an observation or procedure took place after death. Frequently appears at the beginning of a sentence or immediately after the verb.
post-mortem — noun
1. a medical procedure in which a specialist opens a deceased person's body to lear
a medical procedure in which a specialist opens a deceased person's body to learn why the person died.
The coroner ordered a post-mortem to determine whether the death was suspicious.
Post-mortems are routinely performed when a young person dies suddenly without any known illness.
passive construction: post-mortems are performed
The post-mortem revealed that the patient had suffered a massive stroke hours before arriving at the hospital.
Bao's family agreed to a post-mortem to help doctors better understand the rare disease he had been fighting.
The pathologist who carried out the post-mortem submitted a detailed report to the police the next morning.
- autopsy
more common in American English; interchangeable in the medical sense
- necropsy
used specifically for animals rather than humans
- postmortem examination
the full formal term; less common in everyday use
文法句型
[determiner] + post-mortem + on + [person/animal]
carry out / perform + a post-mortem
用法筆記
In British English 'post-mortem' is the more common term for the medical examination of a dead body; in American English 'autopsy' is more frequently used. Subject is typically a coroner, pathologist, or medical examiner.
常見錯誤
2. a discussion held after a project, event, or situation has ended, in which peopl
a discussion held after a project, event, or situation has ended, in which people examine what went wrong and what can be learned from the failure.
The project team held a post-mortem to find out why the software release had so many technical problems.
hold + a post-mortem + on + [event]
After the election, the party conducted a thorough post-mortem of its failed campaign strategy.
Ingrid scheduled a post-mortem for Friday morning to review the product recall that had gone badly wrong.
Every major incident at the hospital is followed by a post-mortem to identify ways to improve patient safety.
The post-mortem identified three critical mistakes that had led to the budget shortfall.
- review
broader term; can be positive or negative, not specifically about failure
- debrief
often used after military or emergency operations; like a post-mortem but less focused on blame
- retrospective
common in agile software development; less negative tone than post-mortem
- planning session
a meeting held before an event rather than after it
文法句型
[determiner] + post-mortem + on + [event/project]
hold / conduct + a post-mortem
用法筆記
This figurative sense is common in business, technology, and sports contexts. Unlike the medical sense, it does not involve death — it refers to analyzing any kind of failure or completed event. Frequently used with 'hold', 'conduct', or 'schedule' as the verb.
常見錯誤
post-mortem — adjective
1. taking place, existing, or collected after a person's or animal's death — for ex
taking place, existing, or collected after a person's or animal's death — for example, a post-mortem examination, a post-mortem photograph, or post-mortem tissue samples.
A post-mortem examination confirmed that the bird had died from poisoning rather than disease.
post-mortem + examination — most common adjective collocation
The museum received a post-mortem donation of the painter's unpublished manuscripts from her estate.
Post-mortem changes in a body can help forensic teams estimate the time of death quite accurately.
The researcher's post-mortem analysis of the brain tissue revealed unusual protein deposits linked to the disease.
- posthumous
more specific; used for works published or honors awarded after death, not for medical procedures
- after-death
less formal; used in everyday writing instead of the Latin form
文法句型
post-mortem + [noun]
用法筆記
This adjective almost always appears before a noun (attributive position). The most common collocation is 'post-mortem examination'. Do not confuse with 'posthumous', which specifically refers to something published, awarded, or born after someone's death rather than a medical or forensic context.