Cigars can be divided by shape into two broad categories: Parejos, which have straight sides, and Figurados, which include all "irregular" shapes.

Parejos:
Parejos include three basic divisions by the relative proportion of their dimensions: Coronas, Panatelas and Lonsdales.

Coronas:
This is a broad category including Coronas, Double Coronas, Presidentes, Robustos, and Churchills. All Coronas are characterized by an open "foot" and a rounded "head".

Panatelas:
Longer than Coronas, Panatelas are usually considerably thinner.

Lonsdales:
The third division is Lonsdales - thicker than Panatelas, but generally longer than Coronas.

Figurados:
Figurados, or "irregular" shaped cigars are better defined. Figurados are very hard to make - a master roller's job

Belicoso:
The smallest of the Figurados, the Belicoso is a small tapered cigar with a rounded head and a larger foot.

Pyramids:
Pyramids taper from a large foot to a small, pointed head. Although many smokers call a large pyramid a torpedo, a true torpedo has a slight bulge in the middle. Next to the Torpedo, the Pyramid is probably one of the most recognized of the Figurados.

Perfecto:
A cigar that tapers at both ends and is closed at the head and foot. Once very popular in the early half of the 20th century, this cigar has fallen hard out of favor. As a result it has lost popularity with smokers and is hard to find, although many major brands still produce it.

Diademas:
The Diademas is the giant of cigars, measuring eight inches or greater in length.

Culebras:
Culebras cigars are an odd size not often found on the market today. It involves three smaller cigars being "snaked" together into a braided final product. In fact, the word Culebra means "snake" in Spanish.

Culebras first appeared when trouble arose around workers being able to take complementary cigars home at the end of the work day. It was soon discovered that they were taking premium cigars and putting their lesser-quality gift cigars into the the premium cigar boxes. To stop this, the practice of twisting the workers' cigars together when they were still moist to identify what was a daily gift and what was the real thing was begun.

This unique cigar eventually found public demand, but such demand has dwindled recently. Hoyo De Monterrey dropped its production of Culebras in 1998, leaving Davidoff as the only manufacturer outside Cuba that still produces the shape.