Muscle · Head

Genioglossus

Musculus genioglossus

The largest muscle of the tongue and the one that sticks it out. It is a flat fan rising from a small bony spike on the inside of the chin and spreading backwards through the whole length of the tongue, from tip to root, with its lowest fibres reaching the hyoid bone in the throat. Because it fans out from a single point, different parts of it pull in different directions: the back fibres push the tongue forward, the front fibres pull the tip back in, and together they hollow the tongue's upper surface. It is also the muscle that holds the tongue away from the back wall of the throat during sleep, which is why it is the one named in discussions of airway collapse.