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.
The Gardasil 9 HPV vaccine protects against types of HPV that can cause cancers of the mouth, throat, vulva, vagina, penis and anus.
From Salon ● Feb. 22, 2026
BBC science broadcaster Caroline Steel describes the gut as the entire digestive tract, from mouth to anus.
From BBC ● Feb. 5, 2026
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
Crohn's disease is a chronic inflammatory condition that can affect any part of the digestive tract, from the mouth to the anus.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 17, 2023
At the second it was in position at the base of his tail, Richard Parker’s anus distended, and out of it, like a bubble-gum balloon, came a black sphere of excrement.
From "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel
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
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
But over the millennia, some blobs straightened out and gave way to animals with heads to ingest food on one end, anuses to defecate at the other, and guts in between.
From National Geographic
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.
