privates
privates — noun
1. a polite and not very direct way of talking about a person's sexual organs, espe
a polite and not very direct way of talking about a person's sexual organs, especially the ones on the outside of the body — for example, when speaking to children about body safety or to a doctor during a medical exam
The kindergarten teacher told the children to keep their privates covered.
collocation: keep [one's] privates covered
During the checkup, Dr. Chen asked Bao if anyone had touched his privates.
embedding in reported question: asked if + pronoun possessive
Yumi gently washed her son's privates with warm water during his bath.
After falling off his bike, Mauricio felt a sharp pain in his privates.
The lifeguard reminded the teenagers to keep their privates covered with a towel.
- private parts
the full, more explicit version of the same polite expression
- genitals
the clinical or medical term; more formal and direct
- crotch
refers to the area of the body between the legs, not the organs themselves; more informal
文法句型
always plural
used with possessive: [someone's] privates
用法筆記
Always used in the plural — there is no singular form *a private* with this meaning. This word is common in conversations about body safety, hygiene, and medical checkups, especially when speaking with or about children. It is more polite than direct anatomical terms but less formal than clinical words like 'genitals'.