Sexual Anatomy in Spanish: From the Doctor's Office to the Bar

Textbooks will teach you el pene (penis) and la vagina (vagina) and stop there. But native speakers almost never use those words outside a doctor’s office — and the words they do use come with rules about gender, region, and rudeness that can get you into real trouble if you guess. This is adult vocabulary, so consider yourself warned; it’s also vocabulary you’ll hear constantly, so consider yourself prepared.

The Basics: Anatomy and Erogenous Zones

Start with the anatomy (anatomía) and the erogenous zones (zonas erógenas) you can name in any register:

• el lóbulo de la oreja (ear lobe), el cuello (neck), la nuca (nape), el cuero cabelludo (scalp)
• los labios (lips), el pecho (chest), los pezones (nipples), los senos (breasts)
• las piernas (legs), los muslos internos (inner thighs), el bajo vientre (lower stomach), el trasero (bottom)
• la vagina (vagina), el pene (penis)

For the inner thigh/groin area you’ll also hear la entrepierna and las ingles. Watch the stress on that last one: ingles with the stress on the first syllable is your groin; inglés, with an accent and the stress on the second, is the English language.

As in English, pene and vagina are the formal, clinical options — what you’d say to a doctor. Everyday Spanish uses something else entirely.

The Polite Middle: What to Say in Company

Between the clinic and the bar sits the register textbooks skip entirely — how ordinary people mention these parts without being either clinical or crude. Las partes íntimas (private parts) works in front of anyone, and ahí abajo (“down there”) does the same vague-but-understood job it does in English:

• Es un jabón para las partes íntimas (it’s a soap for your intimate areas)
• Me duele ahí abajo (it hurts down there — what you’d actually say before the doctor takes over with the clinical terms)

When you’re not sure which register a situation calls for, this one is never wrong.

Colloquial Words for Penis and Vagina

Here’s the male column, with the register notes that make each word usable — or not:

Term	Literally	Where used	How rude
polla	young hen	Spain	vulgar, very common
verga	rod, yardarm	Latin America	vulgar, very common
miembro	member	everywhere	polite euphemism
nabo	turnip	Spain	vulgar
rabo	tail	Spain	vulgar
paquete	package	Spain	cheeky, like “bulge”
trabuco	blunderbuss	Spain	vulgar, implies large
pito	whistle	everywhere	mild, almost childish
picha	—	Andalusia	vulgar

And the female column:

Term	Literally	Where used	How rude
coño	—	Spain	very vulgar, heard constantly
chocho	—	Spain	vulgar
concha	shell	Latin America	extremely vulgar there (see below)
papo	—	Spain	very vulgar
chirla	small clam	Spain	vulgar, keep passive
potorro	—	Spain	vulgar, keep passive
chumino	—	Spain	vulgar, keep passive
chirri	—	Spain	vulgar, keep passive
conejo	rabbit	Spain	vulgar, roughly the English beaver

In Spain, la polla and el coño are by far the most common — and notice the genders are swapped: polla is feminine but refers to the male organ, coño is masculine and refers to the female one. That matters grammatically: me la comes and me lo comes refer to fellatio and cunnilingus respectively, not the other way round. Likewise te la cascas describes male masturbation.

Both words also live full non-sexual lives. ¡Es la polla! means “it’s the dog’s bollocks” — high praise for that new Spielberg film — and ¡Coño! No me di cuenta is just “No way! I didn’t realise.”

A few notes the table can’t hold. For a large penis Spain also uses pollón — the -ón suffix makes anything bigger (pasta → pastón, money → loads of money; fiesta → fiestón, party → massive party). On the other side, papo earns its “very vulgar” rating in expressions like No lo voy a hacer porque no me sale del papo (“I’m not doing it because I can’t be fucking bothered”). The “keep passive” rows are words to recognise when you hear them, not words to reach for.

Concha deserves its own warning. In Spain it’s an everyday word for a shell — and a common woman’s name, short for Concepción. In Argentina, Chile and much of the Southern Cone it’s one of the most vulgar words in the language. If your Spanish is Spain-flavoured and you’re heading to Buenos Aires, this is the single most important row in that table.

The Rest of the Sex Organs

The clinical terms for the other parts (órganos sexuales): el frenillo (frenulum), el prepucio (foreskin), el glande (glans), el perineo (perineum), los testículos (testicles), el clítoris (clitoris), los labios (labia) and el vello púbico (pubic hair).

Breasts and Testicles

Breasts	Literally	How rude
pechos	chest	neutral, safe anywhere
tetas	—	colloquial, the everyday default
globos	balloons	jokey
melones	melons	jokey, vulgar
chichis	—	Latin America: boobs; in Spain the singular means vagina

Pechos and tetas are both very common. Chichi is the trap in this table: in Spain the singular is more likely understood as vagina, but the plural — especially in Latin America — means boobs.

Testicles	Literally	How rude
testículos	—	clinical
pelotas	balls	colloquial
huevos	eggs	vulgar but everyday
cojones	—	vulgar, the idiom powerhouse
bolas	balls	colloquial, more Latin America

Even people who speak no Spanish know cojones, and Spanish has a truly mind-boggling number of expressions built on it — none of them about anatomy:

• ¡Manda cojones! (un-bloody-believable!)
• No me sale de los cojones (I’m not doing it, full stop)
• Me costó un huevo (it cost me a fortune — huevos works the same way)

The Derrière

Finally, the humble backside: trasero, culo, culito, cola, glúteos, pompis, nalgas and cachetes.

Region flips the rudeness here. Culo is unremarkable in Spain but ruder in Latin America; trasero is the reverse — ruder in Spain than in Latin America. Culito, the diminutive, is often a compliment. Culazo can be too, but inside that compliment lies the implication that the ass in question is large. Pompis, nalgas and cachetes refer specifically to the cheeks.

The Register Rule to Leave With

If you keep only three things from this post: the clinical terms (pene, vagina, testículos) are for the doctor’s office; las partes íntimas and ahí abajo are safe in any company; and the vulgar columns are for your ears, not your mouth — wait until you’ve heard locals use a word, in that region, before you try it yourself. Rudeness travels badly: what’s unremarkable in Madrid can be shocking in Buenos Aires, and vice versa.