The tongue
Tongue · lingua
A muscular organ covered in taste buds that helps you taste, chew, swallow and speak.
What it does
The tongue is a mass of muscles running in several directions, letting it change shape and move with great precision. Its surface is covered with small bumps holding taste buds. It moves food around for chewing, shapes it into a ball for swallowing, and forms most speech sounds.
Surprising fact
You have around 2,000 to 8,000 taste buds, and the old "tongue map" showing separate zones for each taste is a myth; all areas can detect all tastes.
Why it matters
Much of what we call taste is actually smell, which is why food seems bland when you have a blocked nose.
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Open in the 3D atlas · Suggest a correction · Not medical advice.
3D models: Z-Anatomy & BodyParts3D (CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2.1 JP). Card text CC BY 4.0.