feces
Americannoun
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waste matter discharged from the intestines through the anus; excrement.
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dregs; sediment.
plural noun
Etymology
Origin of feces
1425–75; late Middle English < Latin faecēs grounds, dregs, sediment (plural of faex )
Explanation
Feces is a technical word for poop: the brown stuff you excrete from your butt. Everyone makes feces. Also called a bowel movement or stool — plus hundreds of terms in slang — feces is the solid waste material your body makes when you go number two. This isn't the word you'd probably use with your buddies, but it is the right word if you're writing a paper or talking to a teacher. Talking about feces can seem funny, but it's pretty important: if you couldn't make feces, you'd die.
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.
But these days, it’s all feces, all the time.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026
Nick Florko: It’s a parasite that is spread by human feces, specifically feces that is left out in the environment to mature and gets infectious.
From Slate ● Jul. 17, 2026
People contract the illness by consuming food or water contaminated with the feces of an infected person that contained the parasite.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026
The farm screens each batch for four types of bacteria: salmonella, E. coli, campylobacter and listeria, all of which thrive in the intestines of cattle and can contaminate milk through microscopic flecks of infected feces.
From Salon ● Jun. 22, 2026
In addition, hunter-gatherers frequently shift camp and leave behind their own piles of feces with accumulated microbes and worm larvae.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
Definitions 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.
