penis
pe·nis/ˈpi.nɪs/noun
penis is spelled P-E-N-I-S, 2 syllables: pe·nis. The wrong spelling people search most is benis: about 150 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 227 of all searches for the word. Penis is a noun meaning “The male erectile reproductive organ used for sexual intercourse that in the human male and other placental…”. The plural of penis is penises or penes.
How many letters and syllables are in penis?
| Letters | 5: P-E-N-I-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: pe·nis |
| In writing | 11 times per million words; the 6,565th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 3; the most searched, benis, about 150 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell penis?
Penis is spelled P-E-N-I-S. 3 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 171 of the searches for penis in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is penis?
Penis appears 11 times per million words in written English, the 6,565th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce penis?
- UK /ˈpiː.nɪs/
- UK [ˈpʰiː.nɪs]
- US /ˈpi.nɪs/
Penis has 2 syllables, split pe·nis in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-penis.ogg, En-us-penis.ogg, En-penis.oga, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with penis?
One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as penis from its last stressed vowel (/inɪs/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: spine, snipe.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of penis
- penises plural
- penes plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does penis mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
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.
- 2
A similar erectile sexual organ present in the cloacas of male amniotes.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Penis in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense male organ for copulation and urination:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | pénis, bite, membre, membre viril, sguègue |
| German | Penis, Glied, Schwanz, männliches Glied, Gerät, Teil |
| Portuguese | pénis, pênis, membro, membro viril, instrumento, ferramenta |
| Spanish | pene, carajo, pirula, pirulo, pito, polla |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does penis come from?
Learned borrowing from Latin pēnis, from Proto-Italic *peznis, from Proto-Indo-European *pes-ni-s, from *pes- (“penis”). First attested in the late 17th century. Doublet of pencil. Displaced native English pintle, tarse, pillicock.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).