What does excreting mean?
Excreting is the act of discharging waste matter from the body or from individual cells, most commonly referring to the removal of urine, sweat, carbon dioxide, or other metabolic by-products. It is the present participle of the verb excrete and appears almost exclusively in scientific, medical, and educational contexts rather than casual conversation. The kidneys are central to excreting waste dissolved in water, while the skin, lungs, and digestive tract each perform their own eliminative roles. The word carries a clinical, neutral connotation — it describes a necessary biological function without embarrassment or euphemism, which is why textbooks and health literature favour it over blunter alternatives. Related forms include excrete, excretion, and excretory. Understanding excreting matters because elimination is one of the defining processes of life: every organism, from single-celled bacteria to whales, must rid itself of toxic metabolic residues to survive, making this unglamorous word essential to describing how living systems maintain balance.
verbExcreting is the present participle and gerund of excrete, meaning to discharge waste matter, such as urine, sweat, or faeces, from the body or from a cell.
- To discharge waste matter from the body or from cells through biological processes.
"The kidneys play a vital role in excreting excess salts from the bloodstream."
"Camels conserve water by excreting highly concentrated urine."
"The lab studied how marine organisms manage excreting salt in salty environments."
Every day your body quietly excretes around two litres of fluid through sweat and urine — an unglamorous process that has kept you alive since birth.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of excreting
Excreting derives from the Latin verb excernere, formed from ex- (out) and cernere (to sift or separate), so it literally means to sift out or separate forth. The English verb excrete was adopted in the early 17th century, initially in medical and philosophical usage before settling into its modern physiological sense. It shares this Latin root with secretion and with words like concrete and discern, all of which involve sifting or distinguishing.
Related word forms
How excreting is actually used
"Excreting" is formal or scientific in register; everyday speech tends to prefer plainer terms. It is used chiefly in biology, medicine, and physiology writing.
Easily confused with excreting
Secreting means producing and releasing useful substances such as hormones or enzymes, whereas excreting specifically refers to discharging waste matter from the body.