vagina dentata
vagina dentata noun: the mythical toothed vagina; often related to castration anxiety.
Noun
vagina dentata (plural vaginae dentatae or vagina dentatas or vagina dentata)
- The mythical toothed vagina; often related to castration anxiety.
- This notion also associates the vampire more directly with the primal uncanny. The long quotation that Moretti uses from Marie Bonaparte's writings on Edgar Allen^([sic]) Poe includes reference to the mythical vagina dentata, the ‘strange’ notion that the vagina ‘is furnished with teeth, and thus a...2005, Barbara Creed, Phallic Panic: Film, Horror and the Primal Uncanny, Melbourne Univ. Publishing, →ISBN, page 86
- My relationship towards tulips is inherently Lynchian. I think they are disgusting. Just imagine. Aren't these some kind of, how do you call it, vagina dentata, dental vaginas threatening to swallow you?2006, The Pervert's Guide to Cinema, Slavoj Žižek (actor)
Forms of vagina dentata
| plural | vaginae dentatae |
|---|---|
| plural | vagina dentatas |
| plural | vagina dentata |
Origin of vagina dentata
First attested 1908, from Latin vagina + dentata (“toothed”); popularized chiefly by Sigmund Freud.
Questions about vagina dentata
- What does vagina dentata mean?
- Vagina dentata means the mythical toothed vagina; often related to castration anxiety.
- What part of speech is vagina dentata?
- Vagina dentata is a noun.
- What is the plural of vagina dentata?
- The plural of vagina dentata is vaginae dentatae.
Words near vagina dentata in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: vagina dentata (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:
Cite this entry: “vagina dentata.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/vagina_dentata. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.