Word.ws English Dictionary

ithyphallus

UK/ɪθɪˈfæləs/

ithyphallus noun: a depiction of an erect penis.

Noun

ithyphallus (plural ithyphalli)

  1. A depiction of an erect penis.
    • The Serpent that tempted Eve too was of the Chitterling kind, and yet it is recorded of him, that he was more subtle than any Beast of the Field. Even so are Chitterlings: Nay, to this very Hour they hold in some Universities that this same Tempter was the Chitterling call'd Ithyphallus, or...1653, Thomas Urquhart, The Works of Mr. Francis Rabelais Doctor in Physick. Containing Five Books of the Lives, Heroick Deeds and Sayings of Garantua and His Sonne Pantagruel, Book IV, Chapter XXXVIII
    • At the first view indeed one would imagine that this Indian effigy was, especially from this application of it, meant for a kind of representation of a Phallus, or Ithyphallus […]1757, John-Henry Grose, A Voyage to the East-Indies with Observations on Various Parts There, Chapter VIII (Of the Gentoo Religion)

Examples of ithyphallus in a sentence

  • On a much-discussed marble plaque from Aquileia she stands beside a figure whose body is a winged ithyphallus, but which has human legs.1968, Erwin Ramsdell Goodenough, Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period, volume 10, Pantheon Books, page 50:
  • Priapus was the personified membrum virilex erectum; it is therefore logical that the physical characteristics of the ithyphallus were incorporated into the iconography of the god.1971, Walter O. Moeller, “Nochmal the Word Anoyaton”, in Classical Philology, volume 66, number 2:

Forms of ithyphallus

pluralithyphalli

Origin of ithyphallus

Borrowed from Latin ithyphallus, from Ancient Greek ἰθύφαλλος (ithúphallos, “Bacchic phallus," literally "straight penis”).

Questions about ithyphallus

What does ithyphallus mean?
Ithyphallus means a depiction of an erect penis.
How do you use ithyphallus in a sentence?
On a much-discussed marble plaque from Aquileia she stands beside a figure whose body is a winged ithyphallus, but which has human legs.
What part of speech is ithyphallus?
Ithyphallus is a noun.
How do you pronounce ithyphallus?
Ithyphallus is pronounced /ɪθɪˈfæləs/ (UK).
What is the plural of ithyphallus?
The plural of ithyphallus is ithyphalli.

Words near ithyphallus in the dictionary

  1. ithylordosis
  2. ithyphalli
  3. ithyphallic
  4. ithyphallics
  5. ithyphallophobia
  6. ithyphallus
  7. ITIA
  8. Itie
  9. Ities
  10. Itigi
  11. Itihasa

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ithyphallus (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.

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