Definition of Posthumous
(adjective) Occurring after an individual’s death.
Examples of Posthumous
- Posthumous award: Nobel Prize in Literature given to Erik Axel Karlfeldt (1864–1931); Nobel Peace Prize given to Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld (1905–1961).
- Posthumous examination: an autopsy to determine an individual’s cause of death.
- Posthumously published book: Max Weber’s (1864–1920) Economy and Society (1922).
- Posthumous recognition: A Confederacy of Dunces written by John Kennedy Toole (1937–1969). Toole committed suicide and his mother advocated for the book to be published after his death. Toole was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1981.
Posthumous Pronunciation
Syllabification: post·hu·mous
Audio Pronunciation
Phonetic Spelling
- American English – /pAHs-chuh-muhs/
- British English – /pO-styu-muhs/
International Phonetic Alphabet
- American English – /ˈpɑstʃəməs/
- British English – /ˈpɒstʃᵿməs/
Usage Notes
- Postmortem means “after death” and antemortem means “before death.”
- A posthumous award is given (adverb) posthumously and has (noun) posthumousness.
Additional Information
- Death and Dying Research Resources – Books, Journals, and Helpful Links
- Word origin of “posthumous” – Online Etymology Dictionary: etymonline.com
- List of works published posthumously – Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia: wikipedia.org
Related Terms
Cite the Definition of Posthumous
ASA – American Sociological Association (5th edition)
Bell, Kenton, ed. 2015. “posthumous.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Retrieved June 5, 2023 (https://sociologydictionary.org/posthumous/).
APA – American Psychological Association (6th edition)
posthumous. (2015). In K. Bell (Ed.), Open education sociology dictionary. Retrieved from https://sociologydictionary.org/posthumous/
Chicago/Turabian: Author-Date – Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition)
Bell, Kenton, ed. 2015. “posthumous.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Accessed June 5, 2023. https://sociologydictionary.org/posthumous/.
MLA – Modern Language Association (7th edition)
“posthumous.” Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Ed. Kenton Bell. 2015. Web. 5 Jun. 2023. <https://sociologydictionary.org/posthumous/>.