autopsy

English

Alternative forms

• autopsia (archaic)

Etymology

From New Latin autopsia, from Ancient Greek αὐτοψῐ́ᾱ (autopsíā, “seeing with one's own eyes”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: ôʹtŏpsē, IPA^(key): /ˈɔːtɒpsiː/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɔtɑpsi/
  • (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /ˈɑtɑpsi/
• Hyphenation: au‧top‧sy

Noun

autopsy (plural autopsies)

1. A dissection performed on a cadaver to find possible cause(s) of death.

   Synonyms: necropsy, necrotomy, postmortem

   The autopsy revealed he had died of multiple bullet wounds.

2. (figuratively) An after-the-fact examination, especially of the causes of a failure.

   Synonym: postmortem

   • 1977, National Science Foundation (U.S.), Washington State University. Computer Science Dept, Proceedings of Conference on Computers in the Undergraduate Curricula (issue 8)

     This lack of built-in clutter makes the system easy to comprehend. Debugging facilities are few but powerful: snapshots, tracing, and autopsy.

   • 2017 January 19, Steve Phillips, “The Next DNC Chair Must Abandon Color-Blind Politics”, in The Nation‎^[1], new York, N.Y.: The Nation Company, L.P., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-08-12:

     Understanding exactly what happened and why is an essential first step to winning back the White House. ¶ In addition to the autopsy, the DNC should abandon the penchant for secrecy and embrace the principles of transparency and accountability that helped inspire and engage millions of people to participate in the 2008 Obama campaign.

3. (figuratively, rare) An eyewitness observation, the presentation of an event as witnessed.

Usage notes

• The term necropsy is usually used for non-human animals, with autopsy reserved for human beings.

Derived terms

• autopsic
• autopsist
• postautopsy
• preautopsy
• psychological autopsy
• reautopsy
• social autopsy
• unautopsied
• virtopsy

 

Translations

a dissection performed on a cadaver

• Albanian: autopsi (sq) f
• Arabic: تَشْرِيح (ar) m (tašrīḥ)
• Armenian: դիահերձում (hy) (diaherjum)
• Azerbaijani: yarılma
• Belarusian: ускрыццё n (uskryccjó)
• Bulgarian: ауто́псия (bg) f (autópsija)
• Catalan: autòpsia (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 屍檢／尸检 (zh) (shījiǎn), 驗屍／验尸 (zh) (yànshī), 屍體解剖／尸体解剖 (shītǐ jiěpōu)

• Czech: pitva (cs) f
• Danish: autopsi (da) c, obduktion (da) c
• Dutch: autopsie (nl) f
• Esperanto: nekropsio, obdukcio, aŭtopsio
• Estonian: lahang, lahkamine
• Faroese: líkskurður
• Finnish: ruumiinavaus (fi), obduktio (fi)
• French: autopsie (fr) f
• Georgian: გვამის გაკვეთა (gvamis gaḳveta), აუტოფსია (auṭopsia), ავტოფსია (avṭopsia)
• German: Obduktion (de) f, Autopsie (de) f, Sektion (de) f, Leichenöffnung f (in this order of frequency)
• Greek: νεκροτομή (el) f (nekrotomí)
• Haitian Creole: otopsi
• Hiligaynon: awtopsiya
• Hindi: शवपरीक्षा f (śavaprīkṣā)
• Hungarian: boncolás (hu)
• Icelandic: krufning (is) f
• Ido: autopsio (io)
• Indonesian: autopsi (id)
• Japanese: 検視 (ja) (けんし, kenshi), 解剖 (ja) (かいぼう, kaibō)
• Kazakh: please add this translation if you can
• Korean: 검시(檢屍) (ko) (geomsi), 부검(剖檢) (ko) (bugeom)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: تەشریح (teşrîḧ)

• Kyrgyz: кайра союуу (kayra soyuuu)
• Latvian: autopsija f, sekcija f
• Lithuanian: skrodimas m, autopsija f
• Macedonian: аутопсија (autopsija), обдукција f (obdukcija)
• Malay: autopsi
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: obduksjon m

  Nynorsk: obduksjon m

• Persian: کالبدگشایی (fa) (kâlbod-gošâyi)
• Polish: sekcja (pl) f, autopsja (pl) f
• Portuguese: autópsia (pt) f
• Romanian: autopsie (ro) f
• Russian: вскры́тие (ru) n (vskrýtije), аутопси́я (ru) f (autopsíja)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ауто̀псија f, обду̀кција f, ра́зудба f

  Roman: autòpsija (sh) f, obdùkcija (sh) f, rázudba (sh) f

• Slovak: pitva f
• Slovene: avtopsija f, obdukcija (sl) f
• Spanish: autopsia (es) f
• Swahili: uchunguzi wa maiti
• Swedish: obduktion (sv) c
• Tagalog: surimbangkay
• Tajik: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: otopsi (tr)
• Ukrainian: аутопсі́я f (autopsíja), ро́зтин m (róztyn)
• Uzbek: otopsi
• Welsh: awtopsi (cy) m

eyewitness observation

• Finnish: silminnäkijän havainto
• Polish: autopsja (pl) f

Verb

autopsy (third-person singular simple present autopsies, present participle autopsying, simple past and past participle autopsied)

1. (transitive) To perform an autopsy on.
2. (transitive) To perform an after-the-fact analysis of, especially of a failure.
   • 1977, National Science Foundation (U.S.), Washington State University. Computer Science Dept, Proceedings of Conference on Computers in the Undergraduate Curricula (issue 8)

     The user may define his own errors, and use DUMPAL to autopsy the system for him.

Derived terms

• autopsier

Translations

perform an autopsy

• Dutch: (een) autopsie uitvoeren
• Finnish: tehdä ruumiinavaus
• German: (eine) Autopsie vornehmen, autopsieren (de)
• Greek: διενεργώ νεκροτομή (dienergó nekrotomí), διενεργώ νεκροψία (dienergó nekropsía)
• Hungarian: boncol (hu)
• Ido: autopsiar (io)
• Norwegian: obdusere
• Russian: вскрыва́ть (ru) impf (vskryvátʹ), вскрыть (ru) pf (vskrytʹ)
• Swedish: obducera (sv)
• Yiddish: פּאַלמעסן (palmesn)

Anagrams

• outpays, payouts