What is the word for tonsils.

Question

We are having much debate on which word to use for tonsils. Could someone please give some input.

Answer 1

In a general sense, the correct word would be las amígdalas; however, when most people speak about the tonsils they are usually referring to the palatine tonsils. Palatine tonsils would be amígdala palatina. There are two other masses of lymphoid tissue classified as tonsils as well: Adenoids - amígdala faríngea, and Lingual tonsils - amígdala lingual.

The hispanic lady that I work with said that you can also use anjinas. I am not sure if that is spelled correctly but she said that you could use both. Have you heard of the other word before? thank you for you answer and the picture. That did help. - dvasas, Oct 15, 2009

Answer 2

Hi Dvasas,

The hispanic lady that I work with said that you can also use anjinas. I am not sure if that is spelled correctly but she said that you could use both. Have you heard of the other word before? thank you for you answer and the picture. That did help.

Yes, I believe that they are also commonly called this, but I think that it is usually just used in reference to a sore throat. The correct spelling would be anginas. Here is an article that uses this terminology in it if you are interested. Remedios para anginas inflamadas

lzanoni1, Thank you for your comment. I learned spanish in spain about 6 years ago and when I got back I didn't use it as much as I should have. I am figuring out that there are a lot of words from Spain that are not used here with the Mexicans. - dvasas, Oct 16, 2009

Answer 3

According to dictionary on this site - la amígdala

Now the question is what is the difference between

la amígdala

la tonsila

las agallas