The onychoteuthid genus Onychoteuthis Lichtenstein, 1818 is in systematic disarray. The oldest species, Onychoteuthis banksii (Leach, 1817), is widely recognized as a species complex, with which two of the other commonly recognized three species—Onychoteuthis compacta (Berry, 1913) and Onychoteuthis borealijaponica Okada, 1927—and some 20 additional names have been all synonymized at one time. This study, a partial revision of the genus, redescribes O. banksii from the Atlantic Ocean; from the pacific, O. compacta, O. borealijaponica, and Onychoteuthis meridiopacifica Rancurel and Okutani, 1990, are redescribed, the name Onychoteuthis aequimanus gabb, 1868, is resurrected, and two additional species are described: Onychoteuthis lacrima sp. nov., and Onychoteuthis prolata sp. nov. Several new species-level characters are examined in detail, compared, and reported for each species, including buccal morphology, tentacular club and hook morphology, chromatophore patterns on the mantle and tentacles, and photophore shape and size.