Meaning & use
diarrhea
Last updated
Meaning
noununcountablemedical
A condition where someone frequently passes loose, watery stools.
Grammar: Uncountable: no plural form, and no 'a' before it.
Patterns
- have diarrhea
- get diarrhea
- a bout of diarrhea
After eating the spoiled food, he had diarrhea for two days.
Diarrhea can cause dehydration, so it is important to drink plenty of fluids.
The doctor asked if she had experienced any diarrhea recently.
Common combinations
- have diarrhea
- She had diarrhea and had to stay home from work.
- get diarrhea
- You can get diarrhea from drinking unclean water.
- a bout of diarrhea
- He suffered a bout of diarrhea after the trip.
- diarrhea medicine
- The pharmacist recommended an over-the-counter diarrhea medicine.
Synonyms and how they differ
- the runs
- Informal and slightly crude; used in everyday speech but not in medical contexts.
- loose stools
- A more clinical way to describe the symptom without naming the condition.
Word family
- diarrheal adjective
- Relating to diarrhea, as in 'diarrheal disease'.
- diarrhetic adjective
- Less common; describes something that causes or is characterized by diarrhea.
Commonly confused: diarrhea or dysentery?
diarrhea vs dysentery
Dysentery is a specific intestinal infection with bloody diarrhea, while diarrhea is the general symptom.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'diarrhea' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Diarrhea' is uncountable, so it cannot take 'a' or a plural verb. 'They are suffering from diarrhea' is correct. The other options incorrectly treat it as countable.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “diarrhea”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.