From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishpost-mortempost-mor‧tem, postmortem /ˌpəʊstˈmɔːtəm $ ˌpoʊstˈmɔːr-/ noun [countable] 1 (also postmortem examination)MH an examination of a dead body to discover why the person died SYN autopsypost-mortem on A post-mortem on the body revealed that the victim had been strangled.do/carry out/conduct a post-mortem2 EXAMINE especially British English an examination of a plan or event that failed, done to discover why it failedpost-mortem on a post-mortem on the company’s poor results
Examples from the Corpus
post-mortem• Only a post-mortem revealed the truth.• A police pathologist carried out a post-mortem on the body.• A post-mortem revealed that the woman had died of blood poisoning.• A post-mortem will take place tomorrow at Poplar mortuary in east London.• Also last weekend, the Fabians published their general election post-mortem.• Party chairman Chris Patten, the tragic hero of the hour, arrived shortly after 11.00 for a lengthy post-mortem.• The most ludicrous post-mortem appeared last Thursday, September 18, on the editorial page of an almost-daily afternoon paper.• Here, in a room in Sandton, the Springboks were undergoing a similar post-mortem.• The verdict of that post-mortem was that Reverend Marr had been killed at about midnight on Friday.• No evidence of drugs was found in the post-mortem examination.• Owing to shortage of medical staff, the post-mortem was not carried out until the following morning.Origin post-mortem (1700-1800) Latin post mortem “after death” 