There are several different types of warts which all vary in size and shape. For example, the size of a wart can range from 1mm to over 1cm in diameter.
Warts are not usually painful, although those that develop under your fingernails (periungual warts) or on the soles of your feet (verrucas) can sometimes hurt. Warts can also occasionally itch or bleed.
You may have one or two warts or you may have a cluster of several warts on the same area of your skin. Some types of warts are more likely to affect particular areas of your body. These are described below.
Common warts (verruca vulgaris)
Characteristics of common warts include:
- round or oval in shape
- they are firm and raised
- they have a rough, irregular surface (cauliflower-like)
- they are most common on the knuckles, fingers and knees
- they range in size from smaller than 1mm to larger than 10mm
- you may have one or several common warts
Verrucas (plantar warts)
Characteristics of verrucas include:
- the skin area of the wart is white
- they often have a black dot in the centre (blood vessel)
- they are not raised from the surface of your skin
- they appear on the soles of your feet
- they can be painful because the weight of your body can force them to grow back into the skin
Plane warts
Characteristics of plane warts include:
- they are a yellowish colour
- they are smooth, round and flat-topped
- they are usually between 2 and 4mm in diameter
- they usually occur in young children, mainly on the hands, face and legs
- they can appear on the lower legs of females (due to the spread of HPV through leg shaving)
- it is possible to have between one and several hundred plane warts, which can develop in clusters
Filiform warts (verruca filiformis)
Characteristics of filiform warts include:
- they are long and slender
- they more commonly develop on the neck, face and nostrils
Periungual warts
Characteristics of periungual warts include:
- they have a rough surface
- they are found under and around the fingernails and toenails
- they can affect the shape of the nail
- they can be painful
Mosaic warts
Characteristics of mosaic warts include:
- they grow in clusters
- the pattern that mosaic warts produce is ‘tile-like’
- they are most common on the palms of the hands (palmar warts) and on the feet
