faeces

See also: fæces

English

Alternative forms

fæces (archaic)
feces (American)

Etymology

From Latin faecēs, nominative plural of faex (“residue, dregs”).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈfiːsiːz/
Rhymes: -iːsiːz

Noun

faeces pl (normally plural, singular faex)

Digested waste material (typically solid or semi-solid) discharged from a human or mammal's stomach to the intestines; excrement.
- 1968 May, W. B. Healy, Ingestion of Soil by Dairy Cows, New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research, page 487,
  This paper reports on ingestion of soil by dairy cows using titanium analysis of faeces by the X-ray fluorescence technique, and gives the range of soil intakes of a year on both an individual and a herd basis.
- 1984 April 19, David F. Chantrey, James B. Reid, C. E. Davie, Dog Business, New Scientist, page 48,
  The fact that dogs have a well developed sense of smell suggests that they might be able to use the odour of faeces as a means of communicating.
- 2004, Håkan Jönsson, Håkan Jönsson, Anna Richert Stintzing, Björn Vinnerås, Eva Salomon, Guidelines on the Use of Urine and Faeces in Crop Production, page 1,
  Urine and faeces are complete fertilizers of high quality with low levels of contaminants such as heavy metals. Urine is rich in nitrogen, while faeces are rich in phosphorous, potassium and organic matter.

Usage notes

This word can be used with plural verbs ("faeces have a strong smell") or singular ones ("faeces has a strong smell"). Use with plural verbs is more common, especially in Britain, and is the only use recognized by some dictionaries,[1] while others recognize both plural and singular use.[2]

Synonyms

(discharged animal waste): dung, excrement, droppings, faecal matter, caca, spoor
(discharged domestic animal waste): manure
(discharged bird or bat waste): guano
night soil, number two(euphemistic)
doo, poo, poop, boo-boo, and doody (euphemistic or hypocoristic)
crap, shit, turd, log (vulgar)
See also Thesaurus:faeces

Related terms

cecotrope
defecate
faecal
faex
feceate
feculence
feculent

Translations

digested waste material discharged from the bowels — See also translations at poo,‎ shit,‎ stool

Aari: tóoni
Afrikaans: ontlasting
Aklanon: tai
Albanian: feçe f
Apache:
Western Apache: bichan
Arabic: بِرَاز‎ m (birāz), سَلْح‎ m (salḥ), زِبْل‎ (ar) m (zibl) (of animals), رَوْث‎ m (rawṯ) (of animals), بَعْر‎ m (baʿr) (of animals), فَضَلَات‎ f pl (faḍalāt)
Egyptian Arabic: براز‎ m pl (burāz), فضلات‎ f pl (faḍalāt), زبل‎ m (zebl) (of birds), جلة‎ f (gela) (of livestock), خرا‎ m (ḵara) (vulgar), كاكا‎ f (kaka) (childish)
Moroccan Arabic: خرا‎ m (ḵrā), خروج‎ m (ḵrūj) (polite), كاكا‎ m (kākka) (childish), بزق‎ m (bzaq) (of birds), بريو‎ m (barrīw) (of sheep, camels), روت‎ m (rawt) (of animals)
Armenian: կղանք (hy) (kłankʿ), կղկղանք (hy) (kłkłankʿ), արտաթորանք (hy) (artatʿorankʿ)
Assamese: হগা (hoga), গু (gu), পাইখেনা (paikhena), শৌচ (xous), মল (mol)
Azerbaijani: nəcis
Belarusian: фека́ліі f pl (fjekálii), спаражне́ння n pl (sparažnjénnja), экскрыме́нты m pl (ekskrymjénty), кал m (kal)
Bengali: টাট্টী (ṭaṭṭī)
Bulgarian: фека́лии f pl (fekálii), екскреме́нти (bg) m pl (ekskreménti), изпражне́ния n pl (izpražnénija)
Burmese: ချေး (hkye:), မစင် (my) (ma.cang), အလေး (my) (a.le:)
Chinese:
Cantonese: 屎 (si²), 糞便, 粪便 (fan³ bin⁶)
Mandarin: 糞／粪 (zh) (fèn), 糞便／粪便 (zh) (fènbiàn), 屎 (zh) (shǐ)
Classical Nahuatl: cuitlatl
Czech: stolice (cs) f, výkal (cs) m
Danish: afføring (da) c
Dutch: faeces (nl) pl, uitwerpselen (nl) n
Egyptian:

(ḥs)
Esperanto: ekskremento, fekaĵo (vulgar)
Estonian: fekaalid pl, roe (et)
Faroese: skarn n
Finnish: uloste (fi)
French: fèces (fr) f pl, excrément (fr) m
Gamilaraay: guna
Georgian: ფეკალია (peḳalia), განავალი (ganavali)
German: Fäkalien (de) f pl, Kot (de) m
Greek: περιττώματα (el) n pl (perittómata), κόπρανα (el) n pl (kóprana), (obscene) σκατά (el) n pl (skatá)
Ancient: κοπρία f (kopría), σκῶρ n (skôr), (of humans) μίνθος m (mínthos), (of animals) ὄνθος m (ónthos)
Gujarati: છી (chī), ગૂ n (gū), હંગણ n (haṅgaṇ)
Hindi: टट्टी (hi) (ṭaṭṭī), मल (hi) m (mal), गू (hi) m (gū), गूह (hi) m (gūh), गुह (hi) m (guh), लीद (hi) f (līd) (of domestic animals), पाखाना (hi) m (pākhānā), विष्ठा (hi) f (viṣṭhā)
Hungarian: széklet (hu), ürülék (hu)
Ido: feko (io)
Ilocano: takki
Indonesian: tinja (id), (slang) tai (id)
Italian: feci (it) f pl
Japanese: 糞 (ja) (ふん, fun), 糞便 (ja) (ふんべん, funben), 大便 (ja) (だいべん, daiben), うんこ (ja) (unko), うんち (ja) (unchi)
Javanese: tai (jv), tinja, ising
Kaingang: jãfa
Kazakh: нысап (nysap)
Khmer: លាមក (km) (liəmŭək), ឧច្ចារ (km) (ʼuccaaraʼ), វច្ច (km) (vaccaʼ), គូទ (km) (kuut)
Korean: 똥 (ko) (ttong), 뒤 (ko) (dwi) (euphemism), 응가 (ko) (eungga)
Kurdish:
Northern Kurdish: pîsayî (ku) f, gû (ku) m
Kyrgyz: фекалия (ky) (fekaliya)
Lakota: čheslí
Lao: ອາຈົມ (ʼā chom), ອຸດຈາຣະ (ʼut chā ra), ຂີ້ (lo) (khī)
Latin: faeces
Lü: ᦃᦲᧉ (ẋii²)
Macedonian: измет m (izmet), екскреме́нт m (ekskremént)
Malay: tinja (ms)
Malayalam: മലം (ml) (malaṃ), തീട്ടം (ml) (tīṭṭaṃ), കാട്ടം (ml) (kāṭṭaṃ) (animal faeces)
Mansaka: tai
Maori: hamuti, roke, tūtae, tiko, hamiti, kurakura, weta
Maranao: ta'i
Navajo: chąąʼ
Northern Thai: please add this translation if you can
Norwegian:
Bokmål: avføring (no) m or f
Nynorsk: avføring f
Ojibwe: moo
Pashto: سوپه‎ f (súрa)
Persian: گه‎ (fa) (goh), ان‎ (fa) (an), پهن‎ (fa) (pehen), مدفوع‎ (fa) (madfu'), براز‎ (fa) (borâz)
Plautdietsch: Kak n
Polish: kał (pl) m, odchody (pl) m inan pl
Portuguese: fezes (pt) f pl
Quechua: aka (qu)
Romanian: fecale f pl
Russian: испражне́ния (ru) n pl (ispražnénija), экскреме́нты (ru) m pl (ekskreménty), кал (ru) m (kal) (medicine), фека́лии (ru) f pl (fekálii)
Samoan: tae
Sanskrit: गूथ (sa) m (gūtha)
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: измет m
Roman: izmet (sh) m
Shan: please add this translation if you can
Slovak: výkal m
Slovene: iztrebek m, blato (sl) n
Spanish: heces (es) f pl
Swahili: mavi (sw) class 6
Swedish: avföring (sv), träck (sv)
Tagalog: tae (tl), dumi
Tajik: саргин (sargin), наҷосат (najosat)
Tausug: tay'
Thai: อาจม (aa-jom), อุจจาระ (th) (ùt-jaa-rá), ขี้ (th) (kîi)
Turkish: bok (tr), fışkı (tr), dışkı (tr), kaka (tr), pislik (tr)
Turkmen: bok
Ukrainian: фека́лії f pl (fekáliji), ви́порожнення n (výporožnennja), екскреме́нти m pl (ekskreménty), кал m (kal)
Urdu: باٹھروم‎ (bāṭhrūm), پا خانہ‎ (pā xānā), پاخانہ‎ m (pāxāna)
Uyghur: گەندە‎ (gende)
Uzbek: kal (uz), axlat (uz), najas (uz), tezak (uz)
Vietnamese: cứt (vi), phân (vi)
Volapük: jiedot (vo)
Walloon: crotes (general, neutral), caca (polite), stron (wa) (used of animals or impolitely of humans), flate (wa) (of bovines), polene (wa) (of poultry), crotin (of equines), petale (wa), pecale (of rabbits or small ruminants), crotale (of rabbits or small ruminants)
Yakut: саах (saax)
Yiddish: צואה‎ f (tsoye)
Zhuang: haex

References

“faeces”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
“faeces” in TheFreeDictionary.com, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.: Farlex, Inc., 2003–2023.

Latin

Pronunciation

(Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈfae̯.keːs/, [ˈfäe̯keːs̠]

(Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈfe.t͡ʃes/, [ˈfɛːt͡ʃes]

Noun

faecēs

nominative/accusative/vocative plural of faex

References

“faeces”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers

[1] “faeces”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.

[2] “faeces” in TheFreeDictionary.com, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.: Farlex, Inc., 2003–2023.