Kuolemantapaus

Kuolemantapaus is a Finnish term for a specific instance of death. The compound of kuolema (death) and tapaus (case, occurrence) is used in formal registers to denote the event of a person’s death. The word is common in medical, legal, and statistical contexts and tends to focus on the occurrence itself rather than the person’s identity.

In medical and hospital records, a death may be documented as kuolemantapaus, particularly when the circumstances are subject to investigation or when the death is unexpected. In legal and police contexts, the term may be used to classify a death as a case requiring inquiry, including cases of suspected foul play, accidents, or undetermined causes. In official statistics and public health reporting, kuolemantapaus is used to count mortality events and to analyze mortality rates, often with subsequent categorization by cause of death.

The use of kuolemantapaus is neutral and descriptive; it does not imply a particular cause of death. It is distinct from kuolema, the broader concept of death, and from more narrative terms describing the death event.

Plural form is kuolemantapauksia, used when referring to multiple death events. The term is Finnish and its precise usage can vary slightly between institutions and contexts.