Synonyms

feces

American

[fee-seez] / ˈfi siz /

especially British, faeces

noun

(used with a plural verb)

waste matter discharged from the intestines through the anus; excrement.
dregs; sediment.

feces British

/ ˈfiːsiːz /

plural noun

the usual US spelling of faeces

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

feces Scientific

/ fē′sēz /

Waste matter eliminated from the intestinal tract.

feces Cultural

Excrement; the waste material that is passed to the outside from the rectum through the anus.

Etymology

Origin of feces

1425–75; late Middle English < Latin faecēs grounds, dregs, sediment (plural of faex )

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.

All three parasites spread through poor sanitation, typically when food, water, or hands are contaminated with human feces.

From Science Daily

Higher in the mountains, the evidence of BTAZ’s grazing was even clearer: swaths of ground chewed and trampled bare, discarded plastic piping, cow feces and bones in an unfenced creek.

From Salon

Of his first brush with gross anatomy: “One scene with people carrying legs over their shoulders to the sink to wash out the feces just turned my stomach, and I was done.”

From Literature

Although humans and household pets can also produce endotoxins, the researchers found that a major portion of those detected in household dust originated from cockroach feces.

From Science Daily

Lumps of feces were strewn about, and little footprints trailed away from a dark hole in the floor.

From Literature

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023