Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Clitoris |
ClitorisNoun1. A female sexual organ homologous to the penis. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Etymology: Clitoris \Cli"to*ris\, noun. [New Latin expression, from the Greek expression, from to shut up. It is concealed by the labia pudendi.]. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Multilingual Slang | English (clit), French (clito ), German (Kitzler), Italian (grilletto), Norwegian (klitt), Portuguese (grelo), Romanian (lindic), Spanish (pepita , Pipote), Swedish (klitta), Yapese (qathean). (references) |
Slang | Clit. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
The clitoris is a sexual organ in the body of female mammals, located near the anterior junction of the labia minora. The visible knob-like portion is located above the opening of the vagina. Its particular function is inducing sexual pleasure and orgasms. The word clitoris can be pronounced (SAMPA: ["klI4@r@s], KLIHT uh rihs, listen; or [klI"tOr@s], klih TOHR ihs, British ["klaItQr@s] KLY tor ihs).
The female clitoris is homologous to the male penis. The organ is formed out of corpus cavernosum, which is a rich collection of capillary tissue with a substantial presence of nerve tissue, particularly well-suited for sexual stimulation. Embryologically, the clitoris comes from the same tissue that forms the male penis. Shaped like an inverted "V", the corpus cavernosum splits into two crura, which extend around and to the interior of the labia majora, and then along the inside of the pelvic bone.
It is not commonly known that most of the clitoris is hidden, and that external stimulation of the entire clitoris can result in a more profound sexual response. One explanation advanced for the now unfashionable idea of the vaginal orgasm is that it results from stimulation of the internal parts of the clitoris during vaginal penetration.
The visible portion of the clitoris is covered by a 'hood' of tissue (the prepuce) that is homologous to the foreskin in males. The trigger for forming a penis instead of a clitoris is the action of testosterone in utero.
Medical literature first recognised the existence of the clitoris in the 16th century. This is the subject of some dispute: Renaldo Columbus (also known as Matteo Renaldo Colombo) was a lecturer in surgery at the University of Padua, Italy, and in 1559 he published a book called De re anatomica in which he described the "seat of woman's delight." Columbus concluded, "Since no one has discerned these projections and their workings, if it is permissible to give names to things discovered by me, it should be called the love or sweetness of Venus."
Columbus' claim was disputed by his successor at Padua, Gabriele Falloppio (who discovered the fallopian tube), who claimed that he was the first to discover the clitoris. Caspar Bartholin, a 17th century Danish anatomist, dismissed both claims, arguing that the clitoris had been widely known to medical science since the 2nd century.
Extensive studies of the clitoris were conducted by noted researchers Masters and Johnson, by Boston based researcher John Garabedian, and by Dr. Matt Jaeger at the University of Kentucky.
In the 1970s, the word clitoris was considered offensive in United States broadcasting, yet in recent years has moved off the "taboo" list. The first use of clitoris on American television is believed to have been by Dr. Rich O'Brien, a Harvard colleague of Garabedian's, on the Dr. Ruth Westheimer show.
Female circumcision, the removal of the clitoris (for cultural rather than medical reasons), is widely practiced today in some societies, mainly in Africa. It is regarded as highly immoral by most Western societies.
See also
External links
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Clitoris."
Synonyms: ClitorisSynonyms: button (n), clit (n). (additional references) |
Crosswords: Clitoris |
| English words defined with "clitoris": Cavernous body, circumcise, clitoral, clitoral vein, clitoric, cunnilinctus, cunnilingus ♦ foreskin ♦ glans, glans clitoridis ♦ prepuce ♦ vena clitoridis, vena dorsalis clitoridis profunda, venae dorsales clitoridis superficiales, venae profundae clitoridis. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Clitoris" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. Danish (clitoral), French (clitoris). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | You have to make the clitoris your best friend (Y tu mamá también; writing credit: Alfonso Cuarón; Carlos Cuarón) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Roy Chubby Brown: Clitoris Allsorts - Live at Blackpool (1995) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Breast size and body fat decrease, the skin becomes coarse, the clitoris enlarges, and the voice deepens. (references) | |
For women--growth of facial hair, male-pattern baldness, changes in or cessation of the menstrual cycle, enlargement of the clitoris, deepened voice. (references) | ||
Women | Nigeria | Indigenous forms of FGM vary from the simple removal of the clitoral hood or labia minora to excision of the clitoris and the most dangerous form, infibulation. (references) |
Indonesia | More invasive FGM practices--removal of the clitoral prepuce, partial removal of the sensitive tip of the clitoris, and even total removal--reportedly occur in Madura, South Sulawesi, and parts of East Java. (references) | |
Malaysia | According to a well known women's NGO activist, some girls in provincial areas are subject to varying forms of FGM. Some Malay girls receive a tiny ritual cut to the clitoris or participate in a ceremony where a blade is brought close to the clitoris. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Clitoris" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Clitoris" is used about 84 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 84 | 36,109 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
clitoris | 7,398 | free picture of clitoris | 49 |
clitoris picture | 501 | clitoris enlargement | 48 |
big clitoris | 374 | clitoris pumping | 45 |
large clitoris | 354 | clitoris masturbation | 45 |
clitoris piercing | 197 | clitoris orgasm | 42 |
huge clitoris | 197 | clitoris anatomy | 41 |
clitoris photo | 158 | clitoris de fotos gigantes | 40 |
clitoris pic | 156 | long clitoris | 40 |
enlarged clitoris | 117 | large clitoris picture | 39 |
clitoris size | 97 | clitoris diagram | 39 |
clitoris grandes | 94 | clitoris gallery | 35 |
female clitoris | 85 | big clit clitoris large | 35 |
clitoris stimulation | 79 | gros clitoris | 33 |
erect clitoris | 61 | swollen clitoris | 32 |
giant clitoris | 60 | clitoris medical picture | 32 |
vagina clitoris | 57 | clitoris fotos | 31 |
where is the clitoris | 57 | big clitoris picture | 31 |
pierced clitoris | 55 | close up clitoris | 30 |
temple of clitoris | 52 | clit clitoris | 30 |
clitoris de fotos | 51 | clitoris stimulator | 29 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "clitoris"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Arabic | البظر بعلم التشريح, بظر. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | клитор. (various references) | |
Chinese | 阴' (clitoral). (various references) | |
Czech | poštìváèek, klitoris. (various references) | |
Danish | clitoris (clitoral), klitoris. (various references) | |
Dutch | coles femininus, clitoris, penis muliebris, penis feminis. (various references) | |
Farsi | چوچوله . (various references) | |
French | clitoris. (various references) | |
German | klitoris, kitzler (clit). (various references) | |
Greek | κλειτορίδα. (various references) | |
Hebrew | קליטוריס, חביו ית, "'"'ן. (various references) | |
Hungarian | csikló. (various references) | |
Indonesian | kelentit, itil. (various references) | |
Italian | clitoride. (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 陰 (penis, testicles), 肉刺 (blister, corn), 観音様 (Goddess of Mercy, Kannon), クリー 色 (Christian, Christian Dior, Christian name, Christian Science Monitor, Christiania, Christmas, Christmas cake, Christmas card, Christmas carol, Christmas concert, Christmas Eve, Christmas present, Christmas tree, clean, clean energy, clean float, clean heater, clean hit, clean rice, clean room, clean up, cleanup trio, clear, clear lacquer, clearance, clearance sale, cleaver, click, clinic, clinometer, clip, clipper, clipping, cream, create, creation, creative, creative agency, creative group, creativity, creator, creole, cricket, crinoline, critic, critical, criticism, critique, crystal, crystal glass, EDTV, Extended Definition Television, Kripke, Kristiania, vented heater). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | まめ (beans, blister, corn, devoted, faithful, hardworking, healthy, honest, peas), か"の"さま (Goddess of Mercy, Kannon), い"かく, クリトリス , クリちゃ" . (various references) | |
Korean | 음핵. (various references) | |
Manx | brillane. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | itorisclay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | clitóris. (various references) | |
Russian | клитор, похотник. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | klitoris, dražica. (various references) | |
Spanish | clítoris. (various references) | |
Swedish | klitoris. (various references) | |
Turkish | klitoris (clit), bızır (clit). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "clitoris": clitorises. (additional references) | |
| |
"Clitoris" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: aleatoric, clethra, clictoris, cliotis, cliteris, clitores, clitorie, clitories, clitorise, clitorix, clitorsis, clitorus, clittoris, cllitoris, gligoric, klitoris, Litoria, Litorius. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "clitoris" (pronounced klītô"ri's) |
| 4 | -ô" r i' s | Loris, orris. |
| 3 | -r i' s | ambergris, Paris. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: coistril. | |
| Words within the letters "c-i-i-l-o-r-s-t" | |
-1 letter: colitis, lictors, solicit, soritic. | |
-2 letters: lictor, triols. | |
-3 letters: clits, clots, coils, coirs, colts, licit, lirot, loris, lotic, riots, roils, rotis, rotls, stoic, tirls, tiros, toils, torcs, toric, torii, torsi, triol, trios, trois. | |
-4 letters: cist, clit, clot, coil, coir, cols, colt, cors, cost, cots, cris, iris, liri, list, lits, loci, lost, loti, lots, oils, orcs. | |
| Words containing the letters "c-i-i-l-o-r-s-t" | |
+1 letter: coistrils, elicitors, floristic, solicitor. | |
+2 letters: clitorides, clitorises, clostridia, coloristic, historical, inflictors, microliths, moralistic, pictorials, proclitics, relictions, solicitors. | |
+3 letters: ahistorical, cliometrics, cloistering, clostridial, clostridium, formalistic, isoelectric, melioristic, microliters, ostrichlike, piscatorial, politickers, scissortail, staurolitic, thiouracils, torticollis, uricotelism. | |
+4 letters: aoristically, borosilicate, calibrations, cardiologist, chlorinities, circuitously, circulations, conciliators, consistorial, cordialities, crocidolites, crossability, derelictions, exorcistical, facilitators, felicitators, fibroblastic, folkloristic, frictionless, historically, iconolatries, jocularities, journalistic, lacrimations, lectionaries, lithospheric, lubrications, neorealistic, nonrealistic, pictorialism, pictorialist, polyhistoric, proclivities, replications, scintillator, scissortails, semitropical, solidaristic, trichologies, trichologist, tropicalizes, unhistorical, uricotelisms, victoriously. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Quotations: Non-fiction 7. Usage Frequency 8. Expressions: Internet | 9. Translations: Modern 10. Derivations 11. Rhymes 12. Anagrams | 13. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
