From Middle English diaria, from Middle French diarrie (French diarrhée), from Late Latin diarrhoea, from Ancient Greek διάρροια, from διά ("through") + ῥέω ("flow").

Displaced native Old English ūtsiht (literally “straining out”).

• (British) IPA: /ˌdaɪ.əˈɹiː.ə/

diarrhea (American spelling, Canadian spelling)

1. A gastrointestinal disorder characterized by frequent and very soft or watery bowel movements.
2. The watery or very soft excrement that comes from such bowel movements.
   • 2008, Danna Korn and Connie Sarros, Gluten-Free Cooking for Dummies, Chapter 1 ↗:

     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?

   • 2009, Daniel Everett, Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes‎, page 47:

     I looked and saw that she and her hammock were covered in diarrhea.

• (medical condition) the runs, the shits, the squirts (US), the trots, the squits (both UK), the skitters (Scottish and Northern English) (all slang)
• See also Thesaurus:diarrhea, bubble guts

• galactorrhea/galactorrhoea
• gonorrhea/gonorrhoea
• logorrhea/logorrhoea
• pyorrhea/pyorrhoea
• rheology
• diarrheal
• diarrheic
• antidiarrheal

• French: diarrhée, foire
• German: Durchfall, (informal) Dünnschiss, Diarrhö, Diarrhoe
• Italian: diarrea
• Portuguese: diarreia
• Russian: поно́с
• Spanish: diarrea, colitis, cagadera, (El Salvador) churria, currutaca, (Chile) churretera

• French: chiasse, diarrhée
• Italian: squacquera, scacazzata
• Portuguese: diarreia
• Russian: жидкий стул