What is tailbone pain (coccydynia)?

What is tailbone pain (coccydynia)?

Tailbone pain, called “coccydynia,” is pain in and around the small triangular bone at the very bottom of your spinal column, above the cleft of your buttocks.

The term “coccyx” comes from the Greek word for “cuckoo” as it resembles a bird’s beak with the tip pointed down. “Dynia” means “pain,” and so “coccydynia” literally means “pain of the coccyx.” And because the bone corresponds to the location of an animal’s tail, it’s called the “tailbone.”