• A muscular organ in the mouth that is covered with pink tissue called mucosa, tiny bumps called papillae, and thousands of taste buds. The tongue is anchored to the mouth and is vital for chewing, swallowing, and for speech.
  NLM Medical Subject Headings
  U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2025
• Movable muscular organ of the floor of the mouth, subserving the special sense of taste and aiding in mastication, deglutition and the articulation of sound.
  CRISP Thesaurus
  National Institutes of Health, 2006
• The muscular organ in the mouth used in taste perception and food ingestion.
  CDISC Terminology
  Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC), 2021
• The muscular organ located in the floor of the mouth and serving as the principal organ of taste and modification of the voice in speech.
  NCI
  U.S. National Cancer Institute, 2021
• The tongue is a mass of muscle that is almost completely covered by a mucous membrane. It occupies most of the oral cavity and oropharynx.
  Medscape
  WebMD, 2025
• Tongue, in most vertebrates, an organ, capable of various muscular movements, located on the floor of the mouth. In some animals (e.g., frogs) it is elongated and adapted to capturing insect prey. The tongues of certain reptiles function primarily as sensory organs, whereas cats and some other...
  Encyclopedia Britannica
  Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 2025