fecal

See also: fécal

English

Alternative forms

• faecal (Commonwealth)
• fæcal (dated)

Etymology

From Middle French fecal, from Latin faex, equivalent to feces +‎ -al.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfiːkəl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːkəl

Adjective

fecal (not comparable)

1. Of or relating to feces.
   • 1973, Water Resources Research Catalog - Volume 8, Issue 1, page 732:

     Differential biochemical or physiological characteristics which correlate with aerogenesis at elevated incubation temperatures will be adapted towards a fecal coliform procedure and towards converting a total coliform procedure under development to give a fecal coliform count as well.

   • 2025 August 30, “US beaches warn about water quality due to unsafe levels of fecal contamination this Labor Day weekend”, in CNN‎^[1], sourced from Associated Press:

     Beaches from Crystal River, Florida, to Ogunquit, Maine, have been under advisories warning about water quality this week because of elevated levels of bacteria associated with fecal waste.

Synonyms

• stercoraceous

Derived terms

• fecal impaction
• fecality
• fecally
• fecal matter
• fecal microbiota transplant
• fecal microbiota transplantation
• fecal occult blood
• fecaloid
• fecaloma
• fecal-oral
• fecal transplant
• fecaluria
• nonfecal
• orofecal
• paleofecal
• pseudofecal

Translations

of or relating to feces

• Catalan: fecal (ca)
• Czech: fekální (cs)
• Dutch: fecaal (nl)
• French: fécal (fr)
• Galician: fecal
• German: fäkal
• Greek: περιττωματικός (el) (perittomatikós)
• Ido: fekala (io)
• Polish: fekalny (pl), kałowy (pl)
• Portuguese: fecal (pt)
• Russian: фека́льный (ru) (fekálʹnyj), ка́ловый (ru) (kálovyj)
• Serbo-Croatian: fekalni (sh) m, фекални m (fekalni)
• Spanish: fecal (es)
• Swedish: fekal (sv)

Interlingua

Adjective

fecal (not comparable)

1. fecal

Middle French

Adjective

fecal m (feminine singular fecale, masculine plural fecaulx, feminine plural fecales)

1. fecal

Portuguese

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /feˈkaw/ [feˈkaʊ̯]

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /fɨˈkal/ [fɨˈkaɫ]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /fɨˈkal/ [fɨˈkaɫ]
  • (Southern Portugal) IPA^(key): /fɨˈka.li/

• Rhymes: (Portugal) -al, (Brazil) -aw
• Hyphenation: fe‧cal

Adjective

fecal m or f (plural fecais, not comparable)

1. fecal (relating to feces)

Related terms

• fezes

Further reading

• “fecal”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “fecal”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French fécal.

Adjective

fecal m or n (feminine singular fecală, masculine plural fecali, feminine/neuter plural fecale)

1. fecal

Declension

Declension of fecal

		singular			plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine	masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative- accusative	indefinite	fecal		fecală	fecali	fecale
	definite	fecalul		fecala	fecalii	fecalele
genitive- dative	indefinite	fecal		fecale	fecali	fecale
	definite	fecalului		fecalei	fecalilor	fecalelor

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /feˈkal/ [feˈkal]
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: fe‧cal

Adjective

fecal m or f (masculine and feminine plural fecales)

1. fecal

Derived terms

• materia fecal

Further reading

• “fecal”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025