Diarrhea
noun ·4 syllables ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A gastrointestinal disorder characterized by frequent and very soft or watery bowel movements. Canada, US, countable, uncountable
- 2 frequent and watery bowel movements; can be a symptom of infection or food poisoning or colitis or a gastrointestinal tumor wordnet
- 3 The watery or very soft excrement that comes from such bowel movements. Canada, US, countable, uncountable
"My Pampers bill is higher than your paycheck, my hands are raw from washing them every six minutes, and I do eight loads of laundry a day because everything we own is covered in diarrhea, and you want me to "plug him up" and wait another three weeks?"
Example
More examples"Whenever I go abroad, I suffer from jet lag and diarrhea."
Etymology
From Middle English diaria, from Middle French diarrie (French diarrhée), from Late Latin diarrhoea, from Ancient Greek διάρροια (diárrhoia, “through-flowing”), from διά (diá, “through”) + ῥέω (rhéō, “flow”). By surface analysis, dia- + -rrhea. Spelling later altered to resemble the word's Latin and Greek roots. Displaced native Old English ūtsiht (literally “straining out”).
Related phrases
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.