excretion

/ɛkˈskriʃən/

Other forms: excretions

Excretion is the physical process of eliminating waste, especially in a living organism. If you think about it, excretion keeps plumbers in business.

In a human, there are three organs that mostly take care of excretion, or ridding the body of substances it doesn't need: lungs, kidneys, and skin. All living things have some form of excretion — in people, some waste is excreted in the form of urine, while the excretion of plants results in carbon dioxide and water being released. Excretion comes from the French excrétion, with its Latin root excernere, "to discharge."

Definitions of excretion

1. noun

   the bodily process of discharging waste matter
   synonyms: elimination, evacuation, excreting, voiding

   types:

   incontinence, incontinency

   involuntary urination or defecation

   micturition, urination

   the discharge of urine

   bm, bowel movement, movement

   a euphemism for defecation

   enuresis, urinary incontinence

   inability to control the flow of urine and involuntary urination

   haematochezia, hematochezia

   passage of stools containing blood (as from diverticulosis or colon cancer or peptic ulcer)

   leak, making water, passing water, wetting

   a euphemism for urination

   lithuresis

   passing small stones with the urine

   nocturia, nycturia

   excessive urination at night; especially common in older men

   oliguria

   production of an abnormally small amount of urine

   pee, peeing, piss

   informal terms for urination

   urochesia, urochezia

   passage of urine from the anus

   type of:

   discharge, emission, expelling

   any of several bodily processes by which substances go out of the body
2. noun

   waste matter (as urine or sweat but especially feces) discharged from the body
   synonyms: body waste, excrement, excreta, excretory product

   types:

   BM, dejection, faecal matter, faeces, fecal matter, feces, ordure, stool

   solid excretory product evacuated from the bowels

   fecula

   excreta (especially of insects)

   wormcast

   cylindrical mass of earth voided by a burrowing earthworm or lugworm

   human waste

   the body wastes of human beings

   urine, water

   liquid excretory product

   barf, puke, vomit, vomitus

   the matter ejected in vomiting

   guano

   the excrement of sea birds or bats; used as fertilizer

   dog do, dog turd, doggy do

   fecal droppings from a dog

   droppings, dung, muck

   fecal matter of animals

   meconium

   thick dark green mucoid material that is the first feces of a newborn child

   melaena, melena

   abnormally dark tarry feces containing blood (usually from gastrointestinal bleeding)

   type of:

   waste, waste material, waste matter, waste product

   any materials unused and rejected as worthless or unwanted