First recorded in 1650–60, anus is from the Latin word ānus ring, anus
< Latin -ānus; see -an
The anus is the hole in the middle of your buttocks. When you poop or fart, you're using your anus. When you talk about your anus, you're using a formal, scientific word. Many kids and adults are more likely to use a slangy term like butthole or bunghole when discussing their anus, but if you're speaking to adults or writing a paper, anus is the word you want. The anus might seem like a funny part of the body, and maybe it is, but it's also incredibly important. Without an anus, you'd die.
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
You’re also at risk of developing hemorrhoids—swollen veins in the anus and lower rectum that can cause pain and bleeding—according to a study that came out last week.
From Slate ● Sep. 12, 2025
Pinworms, for example, cause itchiness in the anus and primarily spread between young children and their families, affecting up to 15% of the population at any given time.
From Salon ● May 18, 2025
The head-tail axis determines the position of the two body openings, the mouth and anus.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 18, 2024
So far, she has stuck her head in a box with snakes, eaten pizza topped with scorpions and cow anus, and faced electric shocks while crawling through a tunnel.
From BBC ● Nov. 22, 2023
Within minutes, Ray cut the shark from the gills to the anus and used a small knife to free the skin and muscle that covered the abdominal cavity.
From "The Line Tender" by Kate Allen
Quantity of the Latin Termination -anus.—Proper names having the termination -anus are always long in Latin and short in Greek; thus, the Claudiānus, Luciānus, &c. of the Latins are Κλαυδιᾰνος and Λουκιᾰνος in Greek.
From Notes and Queries, Number 208, October 22, 1853 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc by Bell, George
It’s honeydew, a sweet substance excreted out of the lanternflies’ anuses as they feed in the canopy above.
From National Geographic ● Aug. 31, 2023
The authors describe parasitoid wasps that lay their eggs inside the cocoons of other parasitoid wasps, for example, and leeches that spend their entire lives inside the anuses of hippopotamuses.
From Scientific American ● Nov. 17, 2022
Comb jellies are their own group separate from jellyfish, who have no anuses and thus poop out their mouths.
From Salon ● Nov. 10, 2021
But scientists have always been uncertain how wombats – which have circular anuses – fashion their feces into their unusual shape.
From Fox News ● Jul. 14, 2020
Despite having round anuses like other mammals, wombats do not produce round pellets, tubular coils or messy piles.
From BBC ● Nov. 19, 2018
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
