corpse

UK/kɔːps//koɹps/

corpse noun: a dead body, especially that of a human as opposed to an animal.

Noun

corpse (plural corpses)

A dead body, especially that of a human as opposed to an animal.
- I saw battle-corpses, myriads of them, / And the white skeletons of young men, I saw them, / I saw the debris and debris of all the slain soldiers of the war, […]1865, Walt Whitman, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”, in Sequel to Drum-Taps: When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d and other poems
The dead body of any animal with flesh; the dead body of a vertebrate; a carcass.
- Cantharidin, although readily decomposed by chemical agents, is so permanent in the body that it has been detected in the corpse of a cat eighty-four days after death.1885, Alexander Wynter Blyth, Poisons, Their Effects and Detection: A Manual for the Use of Analytical Chemists and Experts, volume I, New York: William Wood and Co., page 430
- Near Smeinogorsk an octagonal tumulus has been found containing the corpse of a horse near a rectangular one with a human corpse, both within stone circles.1898, Friedrich Ratzel, The History of Mankind, volume III, London: Macmillan and Co., page 325
(archaic, derogatory, sometimes) A human body in general, whether living or dead.

Synonyms:

bod, body, bones, flesh, carcass, likam, quarrons, soma

Verb

corpse (third-person singular simple present corpses, present participle corpsing, simple past and past participle corpsed)

(intransitive, slang) To laugh uncontrollably during a performance.
- The rest of the day and the week were spent blocking and learning the lines. The only drama was the predictable one of being ticked off for corpsing. Rupert was quite as bad as me when it came to giggling and the tea-party scene which took place between Rupert, David Parfitt, Piers Flint-Shipman...1989, Kenneth Branagh, Beginning, London: Chatto & Windus, →ISBN, page 94
- There were still moments when she would halt suddenly, like an actor stranded in the middle of the stage, lines forgotten, staring goggle-eyed and making fish-mouths...Corpsing: that was the word.1993, John Banville, Ghosts
(slang, transitive) To cause another actor to do this.

corpse meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

corpse in Tamil

dead body: பிணம் piṇam, சவம் cavam

corpse in Marathi

dead body: शव śav, डेड बॉडी ḍeḍ bŏḍī

corpse in Urdu

dead body: لاش lāś, جسد jasad, شو śav

More languagesFewer languages

corpse in Bengali: মৃতদেহ mritodeho, লাশ laś, মড়া moṛa, শব śobo
corpse in Telugu: శవం śavaṁ, శవము śavamu
corpse in Malayalam: ശവം śavaṁ
corpse in Kannada: ಹೆಣ heṇa
corpse in Punjabi: ਲੋਥ loth
corpse in Gujarati: લાશ lāś, શબ śab
corpse in Odia: ଳାକ୍ ḷāk, ଶବ śaba, ମୃତଦେହ mrutadeha, କଟ kaṭa
corpse in Sanskrit: शव śava
corpse in Sinhala: මළ සිරුර maḷa sirura, මළ කඳ maḷa kaⁿda
corpse in Assamese: শ xo, মৰা শ mora xo
corpse in Nepali: मुर्दा murdā, मुदार् mudār, लाश lāś, लास lās
corpse in Pashto: نعش na'š, جسد jasad, مړى meray, درنګه dranga
corpse in Tagalog: bangkay
corpse in Arabic: جُثَّة juṯṯa, جُثْمَان juṯmān, جِيفَة jīfa, جتة gitta
corpse in Malay: mayat, jenazah, jasad
corpse in Indonesian: mayat, jenazah, batang
corpse in Persian: جنازه janâze, jenâze, جسد jasad, کالبد kâlbod, لاشه lâše
corpse in Thai: ศพ sòp, อสุภ à-sùp, ผี pǐi
corpse in Vietnamese: xác, thi thể, tử thi, thây
corpse in Myanmar: အသေ a.se
Sindhi: لاشَ lāśa, لوٿَ lotha, مَيْٿُ maithu, سِرِيهُ sirīhu
Dhivehi: ގަބުރު gaburu
Kashmiri: مۆردٕ mordụ, لاش lāś, ہَپھ haph
Dzongkha: རོ ro, བམ bam, ཕུང་པོ phung po

Examples of corpse in a sentence

Nelson and I landed next to the half rotted corpse of a horse full of maggots.2005, J. C. Arlington, A Red Horse Rode Out, West Conshohoken, PA: Infinity Publishing, page 91:
Poor Damian corpsed and almost forgot his next lines.1993, Bevan Amberhill, The Bloody Man, Mercury Press, →ISBN:

All 40 example sentences with corpse

Synonyms of corpse

12 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of corpse

Forms of corpse

Noun
plural	corpses
alternative form (obsolete)	corps
alternative form (obsolete)	corse
Verb
third-person singular present	corpses
present participle	corpsing
past participle	corpsed
past	corpsed

Plural of corpse: corpses

Origin of corpse

From Middle English, from earlier corse, from Old French cors, from Latin corpus (“body”). Displaced native English likam and lich. The ⟨p⟩ was inserted due to the original Latin spelling. Doublet of corps and corpus, and distantly of riff (via Proto-Indo-European). The verb sense derives from the notion of being unable to control laughter while acting as dead body.

Phrases with corpse

2 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with corpse

warps

Questions about corpse

What does corpse mean?: Corpse means a dead body, especially that of a human as opposed to an animal.
What is corpse in Hindi?: Corpse in Hindi is लाश (lāś), शव (śav). See Corpse meaning in Hindi.
How do you use corpse in a sentence?: Nelson and I landed next to the half rotted corpse of a horse full of maggots.
What part of speech is corpse?: Corpse can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce corpse?: Corpse is pronounced /kɔːps/ (UK).
What is the plural of corpse?: The plural of corpse is corpses.

Words near corpse in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: corpse (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-corpse.ogg.

Cite this entry: “corpse.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/corpse. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.