Two Gram-negative, anaerobic, non-spore-forming rod-shaped organisms were isolated from human faeces. These isolates were tentatively identified as Bacteroides based on morphological and biochemical criteria and appeared closely related to Bacteroides vulgatus ATCC 8482(T). The 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis showed that the isolates were highly related to each other (99.5 %) and confirmed their placement in the genus Bacteroides. 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity values with close phylogenetic neighbours Bacteroides vulgatus ATCC 8482(T) (96 %) and Bacteroides massiliensis CCUG 48901(T) (93 %) preliminarily demonstrated that the organisms represented a novel species. The results of phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and 16S rRNA gene sequence analyses, and DNA-DNA homology values provided evidence that these two unknown isolates represent a single species and should be assigned to a novel species of the genus Bacteroides, as Bacteroides dorei sp. nov. The type strain is JCM 13471(T) (=DSM 17855(T)).