diarrhea
UK spellingdiarrhoea
- 1A gastrointestinal disorder marked by frequent bowel movements that are very soft or watery.
Cholera causes severe diarrhea that can dehydrate a patient within hours.
The new drug's most common side effect is mild diarrhea.
Oppositeconstipation
Note
The spelling is the North American one; elsewhere the word is usually diarrhoea, closer to the Late Latin. Middle English had the plainer diaria, and the spelling was later remade to show its classical roots: Greek diárrhoia, "a flowing through", from diá "through" and rhéō "flow". The same -rrhea ending marks other medical terms for a discharge.
- 2Watery or very soft excrement, passed when bowel movements are frequent and loose.
By the time we got home, the baby's onesie was soaked with diarrhea.
The nurse stripped the bed, whose sheets were stained with diarrhea.
Note
Here the word names the substance rather than the disorder, and it behaves as a mass noun after words of mess: covered in diarrhea, soaked with it, stained with it. It is plain rather than coarse, the word a parent or a nurse can use without apology, though clinical writing often prefers loose or watery stools.
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Origin
From Middle English diaria, from Middle French diarrie (French diarrhée), from Late Latin diarrhoea, from Ancient Greek diárrhoia ("through-flowing"), from diá ("through") + rhéō ("flow"). The spelling was later changed to look more like its Latin and Greek roots, and the word displaced native Old English ūtsiht (literally "straining out").