Word.ws English Dictionary

ass

/æs//ɑːs/

ass noun: any of several species of horse-like animals, especially Equus asinus, the domesticated of which are used as beasts of burden.

ass: any of several species of horse-like animals, especially Equus asinus, the domesticated of which...
Image: Robert Lawton, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

ass (plural asses)

  1. Any of several species of horse-like animals, especially Equus asinus, the domesticated of which are used as beasts of burden.
    • And Iesse tooke an asse laden with bread, and a bottle of wine, and a kid, and sent them by Dauid his sonne vnto Saul.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Samuel 16:20
    • Thus the Aſſe having a peculiar mark of a croſſe made by a black liſt down his back, and another athwart, or at right angles down his ſhoulders; common opinion aſcribes this figure unto a peculiar ſignation; ſince that beaſt had the honour to bear our Saviour on his back.1650, Thomas Browne, “Of the Same [i.e., the Blacknesse of Negroes]”, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC, 6th...
  2. (often, vulgar, noun sense 1) A stupid or inconsiderate person.
    • Near-synonyms: fool, idiot, jerk, asswipe; see also Thesaurus:jerk
    • That new kid left the cap off the syrup bottle again! What an ass.
  3. (obsolete, slang) A compositor.
    • Sometimes by way of joke, and sometimes by way of irritation, compositors are called Asses by the pressmen.[1841, William Savage, Dictionary of the Art of Printing, page 24

Noun (2)

ass (countable and uncountable, plural asses)

  1. (US, slang, vulgar) The buttocks.
  2. (US, slang, vulgar) The anus.
    • Train compartment: two sick young junkies on their way to Lexington tear their pants down in convulsions of lust. One of them soaps his cock and works it up the other's ass with a corkscrew motion.1962 [1959], William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch, New York: Grove Press, page 81
    • That does it! Now listen! Why is it that everything today has involved things either going in or coming out of my ass? I’m sick of it! It’s completely immature!1997 Matt Stone & Trey Parker, "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe," South Park, Season 1, Episode 1 (aired August 13, 1997), Spoken by Eric Cartman (Trey Parker)
  3. (US, slang, uncountable, vulgar) Sex; a person to have sex with; with vulgar emphasis on their corporeality (their body) over their personhood.
    • I'm going to go down to the bar and try to get me some ass.
    • piece of ass
  4. (US, slang, uncountable, vulgar) Used in similes to express something bad or unpleasant.
    • I feel like ass today.
    • This room smells like ass.
  5. (US, countable, slang, vulgar) A person; the self; (reflexively) oneself or one's person, chiefly their body.
    • Get your lazy ass out of bed!
    • We risk our asses out there every day.
    1. (US, broadly, slang, vulgar) One's personal safety, or figuratively one's job, prospects, etc.
      • Mess up one more time and it's your ass on the line.

Adjective

ass (not comparable)

  1. (Canada, US, slang, vulgar) Of low quality; bad.
    • On a recent episode of "The Justin Dunning Podcast," Starkel shared his thoughts on Martell, a former Ohio State quarterback, saying "he's ass my dude" in reference to Starkel.2019 February 5, Alex Miller, “Former Texas A&M QB Nick Starkel breaks down old Twitter beef with Tate Martell”, in Dallas Morning News
    • For some reason, the teenager thought it’d be a good idea to criticize Newton and say he's "ass" and that he’s "about to be poor" because he's a free agent.2021 February 21, Thomas Carannante, “Patriots: Cam Newton getting disrespected by a teenager is everything that’s wrong with society”, in Fansided

Particle

ass

  1. (US, slang, vulgar) Synonym of -ass (used to intensify an adjective).
    • That was one big ass fish!
    • That's an expensive ass car!
    Synonyms:
    -ass

Noun (3) capitalized: ASS

ASS

  1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of argininosuccinate synthase.
  2. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of antisynthetase syndrome.

ass meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Sanskrit

ass in Hindi

buttocks
चूतर cūtar, नितंब nitamb

ass in Marathi

buttocks
गांड gāṇḍa

ass in Urdu

buttocks
چوتر cūtar

ass in Sanskrit

animal — see also donkey
गर्दभ gardabha
More languagesFewer languages
ass in Pashto
کونه kwëna
ass in Tagalog
asno, hunghang, hindot, puwit
ass in Arabic
حِمَار ḥimār, حُمار ḥumār, عَجِيزَة ʕajīza, مُؤَخَّرَة muʔaḵḵara
ass in Malay
keldai, pantat, buntut
ass in Indonesian
keledai, pantat, bokong, ngentot
ass in Persian
خر xar, کون kun, کس kos
ass in Thai
ตูด dtùut
ass in Vietnamese
lừa, người ngu, đít, mông đít
ass in Myanmar
ဖင် hpang
Kashmiri
خَر khar, ژۄتھ ċọth, ژۆتہٕ خٲنٛٹؠ ċothụ khạ̄nṭ', روخ rōkh

Examples of ass in a sentence

  • He is such an ass for leaving the house door open.
  • I'ma get medieval on your ass!
  • […] suddenly a man, in foreign garments: wonderfully real and distinct to look at: stood outside the window, with an axe stuck in his belt, and leading an ass laden with wood by the bridle.1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave Two. The First of the Three Spirits.”, in A Christmas Carol. […], London: Chapman & Hall, […]...
  • Pliny the Elder states that, to increase sexual potency, the right testis of an ass should be worn in a bracelet.1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 49:
  • In this section "animal" means any horse, cattle, ass, mule, sheep, pig, goat or dog.1972, Parliament of the United Kingdom, “Part I, section 20(3)”, in Road Traffic Act 1972, page 14:
  • Acid, booze, and ass / Needles, guns, and grass1971, Joni Mitchell, “Blue”, in Blue:

Synonyms of ass

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of ass

Forms of ass

pluralasses
alternative form@$$

Origin of ass

From Middle English asse, from Old English assa, back-formed from assen (“she-ass”), from Celtic (compare Old Irish asan, Old Cornish asen), from Latin asinus. Displaced Old English esol, from Proto-West Germanic *asil, also a loanword from the same Latin word. Sense “stupid person” from the animal's reputation for stubbornness, going back to antiquity (compare Latin asinus (“slow-witted person”)).

Variant of arse; used chiefly in North America. Ultimately from Middle English ars, ers, from Old English ærs, ears, from Proto-West Germanic *ars, from Proto-Germanic *arsaz (compare Old High German ars (German Arsch), Old Norse ars, Old Frisian ers), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁órsos (compare Ancient Greek ὄρρος (órrhos)). Etymological notes Contrary to the widespread belief of this being a euphemism, it arose as a pronunciation spelling (of the older form arse still used in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, etc.) that shows the assimilation of /ɹ/ before coronal consonants (especially /s/), a phenomenon that has been present in nonstandard speech from the Middle English period onwards; this is distinct from the later phenomenon of non-rhoticity as /ɹ/ was lost before it could modify the preceding vowel. Other instances of this phenomenon (some of which retained both spellings with different meanings) include cuss from curse, gash from garsh, bass (“fish”) from barse, bust from burst, passel from parcel; see :Category:English terms with assimilation of historic /ɹ/ for a more extensive list.

Words formed from ass

Phrases with ass

165 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with ass

1 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about ass

What does ass mean?
Ass means any of several species of horse-like animals, especially Equus asinus, the domesticated of which are used as beasts of burden.
What is ass in Hindi?
Ass in Hindi is चूतर (cūtar), नितंब (nitamb). See Ass meaning in Hindi.
How do you use ass in a sentence?
He is such an ass for leaving the house door open.
What part of speech is ass?
Ass can be a noun, an adjective or a particle.
How do you pronounce ass?
Ass is pronounced /æs/.
What is the plural of ass?
The plural of ass is asses.

Words near ass in the dictionary

  1. ASRM
  2. asRNA
  3. asRNAs
  4. ASROC
  5. ASRS
  6. ass
  7. ass backward
  8. ass backwards
  9. ass bandit
  10. ass bandits
  11. ass beating

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ass (page history and authors); ASS (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Back ache-ass.wav, en-us-ass.ogg.

Cite this entry: “ass.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ass. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.