bowel
Americannoun
-
bowels
plural
-
Anatomy.
-
Usually bowels. the intestine.
-
a part of the intestine.
-
-
bowels,
-
the inward or interior parts.
the bowels of the earth.
-
Archaic. feelings of pity or compassion.
-
verb (used with object)
noun
-
an intestine, esp the large intestine in man
-
(plural) innards; entrails
-
(plural) the deep or innermost part (esp in the phrase the bowels of the earth )
-
archaic (plural) the emotions, esp of pity or sympathy
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of bowel
1250–1300; Middle English b ( o ) uel < Old French < Latin botellus little sausage ( bot ( ulus ) sausage + -ellus -elle )
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Abdominal pain or lumps, stomach bloating and unexplained weight loss are also among symptoms which should lead to a bowel cancer test.
From BBC ● Nov. 3, 2026
The research marks an important advance toward personalized treatment for inflammatory bowel disease.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 26, 2026
Inflammatory bowel disease includes Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, two chronic conditions that affect approximately 500,000 people in the UK and millions more around the world.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 26, 2026
Faye Ramsey, 32, from Ipswich, spent 10 years in agony, with doctors suggesting she had irritable bowel syndrome before she was finally diagnosed last year.
From BBC ● Oct. 25, 2026
She had a perforated bowel that was slowly leaking bile into her abdomen and it threw her organs out of whack.
From "If I Stay" by Gayle Forman
Then, over the weekend, the brand found itself in a messy situation: At its Beijing event, the winner lost control of her bowels midrace and completed the challenges while diarrhea was leaking down her legs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
Eventually John meets his fate by falling through a portal into an abandoned mall, then following signs directing him to a manager’s office hidden in its bowels.
From Salon ● Aug. 31, 2026
“For a program that’s been around since 2013, it was shocking that you’d come across its cancellation, effectively, in the corner of the bowels of a subpage of the internet.”
From Slate ● Aug. 18, 2026
For more than a year, an uncontrolled fire had burned in the bowels of the dump, broiling old garbage and sending nauseating fumes into nearby homes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 12, 2026
To get to Dr. Holiday’s office, I had to walk down a long gray corridor that seemed buried deep in the bowels of the hospital.
From "Bad Boy" by Walter Dean Myers
He lightly runs to earth the quaint Red worm and, deftly troweling, He makes it with his boweling Familiarly acquaint.
From Black Beetles in Amber by Ambrose Bierce
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
