penis

From late 17th century. Learned borrowing from Latin pēnis (“tail, penis”), from Proto-Indo-European *pes- (“penis”). Displaced native English pintle, tarse, pillicock.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpiː.nɪs/, [ˈpʰiː.nɪs]
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈpi.nɪs/, [ˈpʰi.nɪs]

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

• Audio (US):

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• Audio (US):

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• Rhymes: -iːnɪs
• Hyphenation: pe‧nis

penis (plural penises or penes)

2. (anatomy) The male erectile reproductive organ used for sexual intercourse that in the human male and other placental mammals is also used for urination; the tubular portion of the external male genitalia (excluding the scrotum).

   The female clitoris is homologous to the male penis.

   • Robin Williams:

     See, the problem is that God gives men a brain and a penis, and only enough blood to run one at a time.

   • 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 129:

     The penis is the perfectly obvious and natural symbol of instantaneous time.

   • 1994 January 24, Lisa Kemler, Newsweek, page 19:

     A life is more valuable than a penis.

   • 1998, Collecting Mark Twain: A History and Three New Paths, Kevin Mac Donnell, Firsts Magazine, Inc.

     By early November, the sheets of HUCK FINN were being forwarded for binding, and within a week or two it was discovered that the illustration at page 283 had been altered in the master plate to make it appear as if Uncle Silas was exposing his penis. Twain would be amused to know that this may be the first time the word "penis" has ever been used to describe the alteration to this plate; the euphemisms and delicate phrasings employed by previous bibliographers to avoid stating the obvious are impressive.

   • 2016 October 16, “Third Parties”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 3, episode 26, John Oliver (actor), via HBO:

     Okay, hold on, because “stimulus package of your dreams” sounds like how Paul Krugman describes his penis.

3. (zoology) A similar erectile sexual organ present in the cloacas of male amniotes.

• The hyperforeign Latinate penii is occasionally used as the plural.

• tarse, pintle
• See also Thesaurus:penis

• intromittent organ (biology)
• genital tubercle (glans penis and most of penile shaft), urogenital sinus (penile urethra), urogenital folds (underside of penis) - embryological precursors
• external genitalia

• glans

• penectomy
• penile

• erection
• member
• phallic
• phallus

• Snipe, spine, Ipsen, peins, epsin, snipe, pines, Pines, Espin

Learned borrowing from Latin pēnis.

• Audio:

  (file)

penis (plural penisse)

1. (anatomy) penis

• penisbeen

Learned borrowing from Latin pēnis.

• IPA^(key): [ˈpɛnis]

penis m (plural penisë, definite penisi, definite plural penisët)

1. (anatomy) penis

   A ka rëndësi madhësia e penisit tim?

   Does the size of my penis matter?

• luc m (childish)
• karuc m (colloquial, slightly vulgar)
• kar m (vulgar)
• dërrasë f (vulgar)
• hu m (vulgar)

Learned borrowing from Latin pēnis (“tail, penis”).

• IPA^(key): [ˈpenis]
• Hyphenation: pe‧nis

penis (definite accusative penisi, plural penislər)

1. penis

• (slang) duduş
• (vulgar) sik

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [ˈpɛ.nis]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈpe.nis]

penis

1. second-person singular present subjunctive of penar

Learned borrowing from Latin pēnis.^[1]

• IPA^(key): [ˈpɛnɪs]
• Rhymes: -ɪs

penis m inan

1. (anatomy) penis

   Synonyms: pyj, šulin, čurák, péro, pinďour, pindík, pinďa, pinďourek, bimbas, lulánek, pohlavní úd

• “penis”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “penis”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989
• “penis”, in Internetová jazyková příručka (in Czech), 2008–2025

Learned borrowing from Latin pēnis (“tail, penis”), from Proto-Indo-European *pes- (“penis”).

penis c (singular definite penissen, plural indefinite penisser)

1. (anatomy) penis

• penishoved n

• “penis” in Den Danske Ordbog

Learned borrowing from Latin pēnis (“tail, penis”), from Proto-Indo-European *pes-.

• IPA^(key): /ˈpeː.nɪs/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: pe‧nis

penis m (plural penissen, diminutive penisje n)

1. penis

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:penis

• peins

penis

1. past of peni
   • 1910, E. L. Kearney (tr.), “1. Mirinda Falego!”, in La Aventuroj de Alicio en Mirlando‎^[1], Edinburgh: Turnbull and Spears, translation of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll:

     Kaj ŝi penis imagi al si la aspekton kiun kandelflamo havas post kiam oni estingis ĝin!

     And she tried to imagine the look that the flame of a candle has after it is exinguished.

penis

1. inessive singular of peni

Learned borrowing from Latin pēnis.

• IPA^(key): /ˈpenis/, [ˈpe̞nis̠]
• IPA^(key): /ˈpeːnis/, [ˈpe̞ːnis̠] (dated or jocular)
• Rhymes: -enis, -eːnis
• Syllabification^(key): pe‧nis
• Hyphenation^(key): pe‧nis

penis

1. (anatomy) penis

   Synonym: siitin

• “penis”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎^[2] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 3 July 2023

• pesin, sepin

Learned borrowing from Latin pēnis.

• IPA^(key): [ˈpɛnɪs]
• Hyphenation: pè‧nis

pènis (plural penis-penis)

1. (anatomy) penis

• (penis): anu, zakar (dated), burung (childish), titit (childish, mildly vulgar), kontol (vulgar), peler (more vulgar), pelir

• “penis” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

penis (plural penises)

1. penis
   • 1955, Pediatrics, volume 15, page 323:

     […] e se distingueva per absentia o hypoplasia del penis, e 6 casos de complete absentia de gonades del un o del altere sexo.

     […] and is characterised by the absence of hypoplasia of the penis, and 6 cases of complete absence of the gonads of either sex.

   • 1960, Annals of internal medicine, volume 52, page 1112:

     Durante le phase de polycythemia le patiente disveloppava priapismo (que es un complication thrombotic rar de iste morbo). Isto requireva le amputation del penis.

     During the phase of polycythemia the patient developed priapism (which is a rare thrombotic complication of this disease). This required the amputation of the penis.

   • 2000 April 29, STAN MULAIK (Stanley Mulaik), “Le Professor e Le Lunatico”, in sci.lang‎^[3] (Usenet):

     Per le annos, le condition mental de Capitano Minor lentemente pejorava se. Su delusions nocturnal cresceva. Finalmente in un acto de desperation a causa de su practica del masturbation desde un puero, Minor usava un cultello permittite a ille pro acutiar su penciles e plumas a amputar su proprie penis, le organo offensive.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Traditionally compared with Ancient Greek πέος (péos), Sanskrit पसस् (pásas), Old English fæsl (“offspring”) and derived from Proto-Italic *peznis, from Proto-Indo-European *pes-ni-s, from *pes- (“penis”).

De Vaan is skeptical of this in view of the attested chronology of the word's semantics, where “tail” is older than “penis”, which also aligns with the expected semantic development of such a word (compare e.g. Old Armenian ձետ (jet, “tail”) > Middle Armenian ձետ (jet, “penis”)); the reverse development is less likely. Instead, he reconstructs a Proto-Italic form *petsnis (“tail”) and connects the word to penna (“wing, feather”).^[1]

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈpeː.nɪs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈpɛː.nis]

pēnis m (genitive pēnis); third declension

1. (archaic) tail

   Synonym: cauda

2. (anatomy) penis (male sexual organ)

   Synonyms: (euphemistic) membrum virile, (vulgar) mentula, (vulgar) mūtō

   Hyponym: (vulgar) verpa

3. (figuratively) lust

Third-declension noun (i-stem).

• penis in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• penis in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers

Learned borrowing from Latin pēnis.

penis m (2 declension)

1. penis

• dzimumloceklis

Learned borrowing from Latin pēnis.

penis m (definite singular penisen, indefinite plural peniser, definite plural penisene)

1. (anatomy) a penis

• “penis” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Learned borrowing from Latin pēnis.

penis m (definite singular penisen, indefinite plural penisar, definite plural penisane)

1. (anatomy) a penis

• “penis” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Learned borrowing from Latin pēnis.

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɛ.ɲis/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛɲis
• Syllabification: pe‧nis

penis m inan

1. penis

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:prącie

• penis in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• penis in Polish dictionaries at PWN

• пенис (penis) — Moldovan Cyrillic spelling

Learned borrowing from Latin pēnis.

• IPA^(key): [ˈpenis]

penis n (plural penisuri)

1. (anatomy) penis

   Synonyms: (slang) miel; (slang) puță; (slang) sculă

• pulă (vulgar, slang)

• erecție
• prepuț
• testicul
• vagin

• “penis”, in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language) (in Romanian), 2004–2025

Learned borrowing from Latin pēnis.

• IPA^(key): /pěːnis/
• Hyphenation: pe‧nis

pénis m inan (Cyrillic spelling пе́нис)

1. (anatomy) penis

   Tijelo penisa je građeno od dva kavernozna i spužvastog tkiva. Ove dvije vrste tkiva čine erektilno tijelo penisa. (Ijekavian)

   Telo penisa je građeno od dva kavernozna i spužvastog tkiva. Ove dve vrste tkiva čine erektilno telo penisa. (Ekavian)

   The body of the penis is formed of two cavernous and spongy tissues. These two forms of tissues form the erectile body of the penis.

Learned borrowing from Latin pēnis.

• IPA^(key): [ˈpenis]

penis m inan

1. (anatomy) penis

• “penis”, in Slovníkový portál Jazykovedného ústavu Ľ. Štúra SAV [Dictionary portal of the Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics, Slovak Academy of Science] (in Slovak), https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk, 2003–2025

Learned borrowing from Latin pēnis.

• IPA^(key): /péːnis/

pẹ̑nis m inan

1. (anatomy) penis

The diacritics used in this section of the entry are non-tonal. If you are a native tonal speaker, please help by adding the tonal marks.

Masculine inan., hard o-stem
nom. sing.	pénis
gen. sing.	pénisa
	singular	dual	plural
nominative (imenovȃlnik)	pénis	pénisa	pénisi
genitive (rodȋlnik)	pénisa	pénisov	pénisov
dative (dajȃlnik)	pénisu	pénisoma	pénisom
accusative (tožȋlnik)	pénis	pénisa	pénise
locative (mẹ̑stnik)	pénisu	pénisih	pénisih
instrumental (orọ̑dnik)	pénisom	pénisoma	pénisi

• “penis”, in Slovarji Inštituta za slovenski jezik Frana Ramovša ZRC SAZU (in Slovene), 2014–2025

Learned borrowing from Latin pēnis.

penis c

1. (anatomy) penis

Anatomical terms for body parts are sometimes uninflected in the definite in medical jargon (and language riffing on medical jargon), being treated similar to proper nouns. See the declension table.

• kuk (has synonyms ordered by register)
• boll
• erektion
• fallos
• könshår (“pubic hair”)
• ollon (“glans”)
• pung (“scrotum”)
• skaft (“shaft”)
• svällkropp (“corpus cavernosum”)
• testikel (“testicle”)
• urinrör (“urethra”)
• vagina

• penis in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• penis in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• penis in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)
• Svensk MeSH
• Fula Ordboken

Learned borrowing from Latin pēnis (“tail, penis”), from Proto-Indo-European *pes- (“penis”).

• IPA^(key): [ˈpenis]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: pe‧nis

penis (definite accusative penisi, plural penisler)

1. penis

   Onun penisinde aşağı doğru bir eğrilik var.

   His penis has a downward curvature.

• penissiz

• “penis”, in Turkish dictionaries, Türk Dil Kurumu

penis

1. accusative plural of pen

Borrowed from English penis, from Latin pēnis.

penis m

1. penis

   Synonym: pidyn

• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “penis”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies