corpse

/kɔrps/

/kɔps/

Another name for a dead body is corpse. You might hear the word on TV crime shows, but a corpse doesn't have to be a crime victim, just any lifeless body.

The words corpse and "corps" are often confused, and with good reason — both came from the Latin word corpus, meaning "body," and up until the 19th Century, both referred to a dead person. Around that time, the word with the "e" at the end was established as the word for a person's remains, while the other spelling was relegated to a "body" of people working together or in a military division, and very much alive!

Definitions of corpse

1. noun

   the dead body of a human being
   “the end of the police search was the discovery of a corpse”

   synonyms: cadaver, clay, remains, stiff

   types:

   cremains

   the remains of a dead body after cremation

   type of:

   body, dead body

   a natural object consisting of a dead animal or person