Vulva

How do you describe a woman's vulva without anatomical detail or slang like "pussy"?

I've used things like "The soft folds and creases between her legs," which is fine for a lot of things. I'm looking for words that describe the wedge-shaped forms it takes when the woman's thighs are together.

Inquiring Minds want to know.

Mound usually works for the general area. For some reason "silken tube" finds its way in to my stories once in a while in place of my usual word for vagina, which, oddly enough, is vagina.

Mound. Depends on the narrator.

For now, her legs were closed tight. Her treasure was partially revealed, yet so very concealed at the same time. I vowed silently to see it all at some point this night, but for now the perfect heart shaped bit of bare flesh held me enraptured—the tightly closed slit hiding the fullness of her beauty except for just a glimpse of her clit peeking out of the folds. ~

from The Bald-Headed Hermit and The Artichoke: An Erotic Thesarus

Genitalia, Female (General)

see Clitoris, Labia, Vagina

Much of the slang for female genitalia does not distinguish among specific parts of the female anatomy: pudendum, labia, vagina, uterus. Many terms are used interchangeably.

ace, ace of spades, agility, antipodies, basket, bazaar, bazoo,
bearded clam, beauty spot, beaver, beef, belly, between the legs,

* Beaver: American term from the 1960s, often used in pornographic materials: i.e., beaver shots, where pubic hair and the vagina are displayed.

bit, black badger, blackness, bont, boody, booty, bore, box,
bread, bucket, budget, bug, bun(ny), burning shame, C,

* C: an example of one letter used as a substitute for a "dirty word, " in this case cunt.

cabbage, cabbage field, cabbage patch,
cachancha, cake, can, Cape Horn, carnal
parts, carnal trap, cauliflower, cellar, centre
of bliss, centre of joy, cherry, chink,
chuff, chunk, churn, civet, cock alley, cock
hall, cock holder, cock hotel, cock inn, cockles,
cockpit, codger, conny, constable, contrapuncturn,
conundrum, cony/conny, cooch, cookie, coot, cooze, corner,
coyote, crack,

* Coot: 20th-century American term; related to cooze.

cradle, crotch, cunning, cunnus, cunny, cunt, Cupid's alley,
Cupid's cave, Cupid's corner, cushion, date, diddly pout, dimple,
ditch, dot, doughnut, et cetera, Eve's custom house, eye,
fan, fancy bit, fanny, femininity, fern, fig, Fitz, flange, flesh, front
bottom, front door, front parlour, front passage, front porch,

* Fanny: in the U.S., currently means buttocks, but was first used in the U.K. as a euphemism for female genitals. It may have its origin in the novel Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, written by John Cleland in 1749.

* Furburger: 1960s American; a term for vulva used by hamburger-loving college students. Hairburger is a variant.

front window, front-bum, fudd, furburger, futy, gap, gape, garden,
gash, gentleman's delight, gentleman's garden, golden
doughnut, goods (the), growler, gusset, gutted rabbit, gym,
ha'penny, hair pie, hairburger, hairy losso, hairy magnet, hide,
hogeye, hole, honeypot, hoop, hotel, ivory gate, jam, jelly-roll,
Joe Hunt, kettle, keyhole, kitchen, kitty, lap, leather, little sister,
loins, long eye, Lord knows what, lowlands, madge, magnet,
male catcher, man catcher, manhole, maneater,

* Archaic terms such as man catcher, man trap, and noose suggest a certain fear of the female genitalia, in keeping with the traditional notion of woman as a dangerous temptress.

* Merkin: lyth-century; term for a pubic wig, later a slang term for the female genitals, possibly derived from malkin, which was used to describe an untidy, lower-class woman.

manometer, mantrap, map of Tassie, marble arch, masterpiece,
meat, merchandise, merkin, mich, michael, mickey, minge,
mole catcher, money, moneymaker, monkey, mons pubis, mons
veneris, mortar, mott, mound, mound of Venus, muff, mushroom,
mutt, mutton, nasty, naughty bits, nether regions, nick,
noose, notch, 0, old thing, orifice, ornament, pan, paradise,

* Pas touche: 20th-century Québec Crée, meaning don't touch.

parts, pas touche, patch, piece, pink bits, piss slit, pisser, pit,
playing field, pot, pranny, private parts, pudenda, pulpit, pussy,
quaint, quarry, quid, quiff, quim, quiro, rose, rubyfruit, saddle,

* Rubyfruit: from Rubyfruit Jungle, a classic lesbian novel by American author Rita Mae Brown.

scratch, seminary, slash, slit, slot, sluice, snatch, spot, squirrel,
sweet potato pie, thing, till, touch hole, trinket, twam(my), twat,

* Twat (twot): first used in the 17th century to signify the female genitals, but origins unknown.

twot, valve, velvet glove, velvet vice, vertical smile, vulva, water
engine, water worker, wee wee, whatsit, wheel, whim, whisker
biscuit, whore, winker, wound, wrinkle, yawn, you know,
yum(s), zatch

* Vulva: a current medical term for the female external genitalia. Latin for uterus.

NotWise said:

How do you describe a woman's vulva without anatomical detail or slang like "pussy"?

I've used things like "The soft folds and creases between her legs," which is fine for a lot of things. I'm looking for words that describe the wedge-shaped forms it takes when the woman's thighs are together.

Inquiring Minds want to know.

Click to expand...

Delta of Venus, cf Anais Nin, or simply Delta. It refers to the shape, an inverted letter delta from Greek. The original cuneiform pictograph for woman was, similarly, an inverted triangle, but with a short straight line up from the lower vertex. Very pictographic. The term also alludes to the mouth of a river, where its fluid flows out from the land. The term 'Mound' for the fleshy rise above the pubic symphysis is useful here as well, and derives from the fuller term 'Mons Veneris,' or mount of Venus.

I actually use vulva quite a bit. It has a certain dignity that fits my stories well.

I don't describe genital details much. I'm assuming the reader knows what a pussy looks like. Sometimes I add something like "Her pubes were neatly trimmed and all her exciting details were on display." Exactly what those details look like isn't usually essential.

“He gently slid inside her” to “he hammered her demanding cunt into ecstatic submission” and everything in between. I think it depends on the story how you refer to it.

Admittedly cunt and pussy have strong connotations but there's no reason to really not to use them. They can help balance out the more colourful descriptions I might later give so that the pussy sounds less juvenile or cunt less hostile. If I want a more neutral word, I often use "her lower lips."

I sometimes like to go quite metaphorical and describe it as "the valley between her legs" or "her oasis." I believe in one of my stories recently I described it as a fountain or spring.

There are really many different kinds of vulva out there so there is many ways to describe it really. Some are quite compact and others have folds that spread like butterfly wings. "Petals," "folds," "wings." Then there are all those colours and how thick they get. There's a lot to describe.

NotWise said:

How do you describe a woman's vulva without anatomical detail or slang like "pussy"?

I've used things like "The soft folds and creases between her legs," which is fine for a lot of things. I'm looking for words that describe the wedge-shaped forms it takes when the woman's thighs are together.

Inquiring Minds want to know.

Click to expand...

Have you considered "pudendum or pudenda" ?

rescatooor said:

Admittedly cunt and pussy have strong connotations but there's no reason to really not to use them.

There are really many different kinds of vulva out there so there is many ways to describe it really.

Click to expand...

Cunt is more aggressive and I use it when the man and woman just want to fuck whereas, in my opinion, pussy is more suited to a more loving joining together. Where the boundary is depends on the actual story. There is a tendency, particularly when you’ve got a few stories in your bag, to look for something different but, as with jokes, sometimes the old ones are the best.

There definitely are many different types of volvo, and over the years I’ve encountered quite a few, but you just have to find the model you feel most comfortable in.

One I've seen often and adopted myself is "her womanhood."

I generally use vulva or mound. I agree with tomlitilia, the reader knows what you're talking about.

I wonder how many stories are out there in which the author doesn't tell you a damn thing about what their characters faces look like, but describe their genitalia in detail.

"What do you like to call it?"

"I usually just say my vagina."

"What do you like me to call it?"

Mary thought for a minute. "I like when you call it my pussy. I hate twat or snatch or any of those words, they sound ugly. But a pussy is, I don't know, warm. Cuddly."

"Fuzzy?"

Mary laughed, "Yeah, fuzzy."


Mary and Alvin Ch.18: The Hub Of The Universe

Click to expand...

GroverLang said:

Cunt is more aggressive and I use it when the man and woman just want to fuck whereas, in my opinion, pussy is more suited to a more loving joining together. Where the boundary is depends on the actual story. There is a tendency, particularly when you’ve got a few stories in your bag, to look for something different but, as with jokes, sometimes the old ones are the best.

There definitely are many different types of volvo, and over the years I’ve encountered quite a few, but you just have to find the model you feel most comfortable in.

Click to expand...

I used to hate "pussy." I just thought the word was childish. I even preferred cunt.

When I was a young adult (an even younger adult that is), I came up with a name of my own that I could use for sexting and semi-dirty talk with my lovers. I called it a peach. Juicy, appealing peach.

And this was before the peach emoji meant bum.

MelissaBaby said:

I generally use vulva or mound. I agree with tomlitilia, the reader knows what you're talking about.

Click to expand...

I don't usually go into a lot of detail, but this is for my Nude Day story, and a little detailed description seems appropriate.

Thanks for the ideas. What would you think of something like "her most sensitive mouthful"?

I try to mix it up, but it depends on the tone of the story. I use "pussy" a lot, probably because it's the word that's been most often used by the women I've known intimately, so it seems right to me when I write women characters.

I think the word "sex" can work when you are describing the act but don't want to be too anatomically precise. I've seen the term used effectively in published erotic fiction.

I think I've used vulva, cunt, labia, lips, slit, clit, clitoris, etc. as well. I like the word "cunt", but I'm aware that many find it off-putting, so I tend to be careful about where and when I use it.

For me, one of the joys of writing here is that euphemism isn’t necessary if you don’t want to use it. So a lot of the older publishable terms for genitalia, devised as they were to obscure “bad words,” are obsolete here. And I cordially dislike “harlequin romance” terms like womanhood, her sex, her flower, etc.

Unless I want them to serve the story I’m telling. That’s where the narrator comes into play. A story set in the ‘50s can and should use “beaver” where a modern-set story could just go ahead and say “dirty fuckhole” or something. I wrote a story recently where the POV came from a medic; she often used more clinical terms than my other narrators might.

TL/DR: whatever serves the story.

Sometimes just "V" (the/her) works.

rescatooor said:

When I was a young adult (an even younger adult that is), I came up with a name of my own that I could use for sexting and semi-dirty talk with my lovers. I called it a peach. Juicy, appealing peach.

And this was before the peach emoji meant bum.

Click to expand...

The Steve Miller band got there in 1973: "I really love your peaches, want to shake your tree." Although maybe the peaches are her breasts and the tree is her body in general; it might be open to interpretation.

By the way, there is something annoying about the narrator of the song, although maybe that's intentional.

gunhilltrain said:

The Steve Miller band got there in 1973: "I really love your peaches, want to shake your tree." Although maybe the peaches are her breasts and the tree is her body in general; it might be open to interpretation.

By the way, there is something annoying about the narrator of the song, although maybe that's intentional.

Click to expand...

Allman Brothers Band- 'Eat a Peach.'

Love and Kisses

Lisa Ann

gunhilltrain said:

The Steve Miller band got there in 1973: "I really love your peaches, want to shake your tree." Although maybe the peaches are her breasts and the tree is her body in general; it might be open to interpretation.

By the way, there is something annoying about the narrator of the song, although maybe that's intentional.

Click to expand...

I always figured they meant boobs. Because plural.

Voboy said:

For me, one of the joys of writing here is that euphemism isn’t necessary if you don’t want to use it. So a lot of the older publishable terms for genitalia, devised as they were to obscure “bad words,” are obsolete here...

Click to expand...

My mother is and was an expert at the indirect conversation, she doesn't get mad, but disappointed. When someone is disappointed in you, it correctly focuses the discussion on you.

In addition she is and was both correct and direct. I clearly recall her telling my second grade teacher, nearly sixty years ago, how disappointed she was that an educated woman... Who was educating little girls... Had such a poor self-image that she felt that the correct physiological terms for the parts of the human body were 'dirty words,' not appropriate for use in an educational setting.

I prefer the correct anatomical terms, but I also like to mix it up, not repeat myself too many times. I also use coarser terms, 'cunt' doesn't bother me. I will use it like the late great Richard Prior used, well we know what he used...

I use period terms in period pieces and try to imagine what my character would say in dialog. My lover, my brother's wife, really did call it her 'coochie' at nineteen almost twenty. Its how she was raised, with a really poor self-image, and that can kill. She was probably healthier at 61 than at 21.

Love and Kisses

Lisa Ann

NotWise said:

I don't usually go into a lot of detail, but this is for my Nude Day story, and a little detailed description seems appropriate.

Thanks for the ideas. What would you think of something like "her most sensitive mouthful"?

Click to expand...

If you're going for a poetic feel, that's pretty good, it centers the woman and from the perspective of female readers, that's always a plus.

When I see "her sex" or "her womanhood" or phrases like that, I get this feeling that the author has sort of "flinched", like they were embarrassed to write "cunt" or "pussy."

SimonDoom said:

I try to mix it up, but it depends on the tone of the story. I use "pussy" a lot, probably because it's the word that's been most often used by the women I've known intimately, so it seems right to me when I write women characters.

I think the word "sex" can work when you are describing the act but don't want to be too anatomically precise. I've seen the term used effectively in published erotic fiction.

I think I've used vulva, cunt, labia, lips, slit, clit, clitoris, etc. as well. I like the word "cunt", but I'm aware that many find it off-putting, so I tend to be careful about where and when I use it.

Click to expand...

I always try to keep the language appropriate for the POV character. as in the example I cited earlier, in which Mary says "vagina" and Alvin says "pussy." Your observation is correct, in my opinion, though. As Mary says, she likes it when Alvin calls it her pussy, even though she doesn't often use it herself.