What is the Latin word for dirt?

The usual Latin words for “dirt” are lutum, caenum, sordēs; also illuviēs, stercus, faciō. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.

English → Latin

“dirt” in Latin

lutumsoil, dirt, mire, mud; loam, clay caenumdirt, filth, mud, mire sordēsdirt, filth, squalor; meanness, stinginess, niggardliness; humiliation illuviēsfilth; overflowing, inundation (post-classical)stercusdung, excrement, ordure faciōto do (particularly as a specific instance or occasion of doing); to make, construct, fashion, frame, build, erect; to m merdadung, excrement, shit quisquĭlĭaethe waste squālorstiffness, roughness; dirtiness, filthiness, foulness, squalor sinōto let; to permit; to allow; to put; to lay; to set down

Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864

dirt

lutum (dirt of streets, roads): coenum (mire of bog, morass, etc.): sordes: illuvies (the former, any dirt, e.g., of clothes; the latter especially dirt on the bodies of persons and animals): stercus: fimus: merda (the dung of persons and animals; stercus, simply dung; fimus, as filth; merda, as something contemptible, defiling): quisquiliae (all sweepings, refuse, etc., which one throws away; also figuratively, of useless things): squalor (disgusting dirt, opposed to nitor): situs (dirt contracted by things being never touched or removed; by its being left in a damp place, etc.): paedor (of dirt, as emitting a bad smell; e.g., from neglect of the person): purgamentum (of the impurities that are removed when anything is cleaned). To be covered with dirt, situ squalere: covered with dirt, situ sordidus; obsitus squalore (e.g., vestis). A spot of dirt, macula: to remove spots of dirt, maculas abluere, auferre, emendare, tollere (Plin.). To remove a spot of dirt from anything, maculam auferre de aliqua re; maculam abluere ex aliqua re (by washing it out). To be as cheap as dirt, or dirt cheap, pro luto esse (e.g., annona, Petronius., Sat., 44).

Quick answer

What is the Latin word for dirt?: The usual Latin words for “dirt” are lutum, caenum, sordēs; also illuviēs, stercus, faciō. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.

Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.