Bodily Oddities

Pointed tongue

Also called: Tongue pointing · Sharp tongue

Making the tip of the tongue narrow and sharp, like a pencil point. About 55% of people can do it. After rolling, it is the most common tongue trick.

Mouth and throat Muscle Trick Voluntary
Try it Learnable Party trick

How common

~55% Very common · > 50%

Can you do this?

These are answers from visitors, not a study.

How it works

A pointed tongue has a tip that narrows to a point instead of a rounded edge. It looks like a lizard’s tongue or the point of a paintbrush.

The tongue is a muscular hydrostat. It has no bone and its volume stays constant, so squeezing it in one direction makes it grow in another3. To make a point, the crosswise muscles inside the tongue squeeze the tip from the sides, and the up-and-down muscles flatten it2. The tip gets narrower and longer at the same time. The octopus arm and the elephant trunk work the same way3.

About 55% of people can make a clear point on command1. Most of the rest can make a slightly narrower tip but not a sharp one. Practice helps. Singers and people who play wind instruments often report that tongue control improves with training. No formal studies exist on how many people can learn it.

Try it

  1. Push your tongue out about a centimetre.
  2. Squeeze the tip from the sides, as if pinching it with the tongue’s own muscles. Do not use your lips.
  3. Push the tip forward at the same time. It should narrow and lengthen.
  4. Look in a mirror. A clear point is the target. A slight taper is normal for people who cannot do it.
  5. Try holding the point for five seconds. Most people find the tip trembles.

Sources and further material

  1. Encyclopedia Tongue rolling Prevalence figures for the pointed tongue and related shapes.
  2. Encyclopedia Tongue
  3. Encyclopedia Muscular hydrostat How a muscle with no bone changes shape. The tongue, the elephant trunk, and the octopus arm all work this way.
Mouth Trick

Tongue rolling

Between 65% and 84% of people can curl the sides of the tongue up into a tube. For decades it was taught as a simple one-gene trait. It is not.

65–84% of people
Mouth Trick

Tongue twisting

Turning the tongue on its side so the edges face up and down, or all the way over. Between 12% and 36% of people can twist it at least halfway.

12–36%
Mouth Trick

Gorlin's sign

Touching the tip of your nose with your tongue. About 10% of people can do it. About half of people with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome can, so doctors use it as a quick check for stretchy connective tissue.

~10% of people
Mouth Trick

Cloverleaf tongue

Folding the tongue into three lobes, like a clover leaf. Between 10% and 15% of people in Western samples can do it. It is usually called the hardest tongue shape.

10–15% (Western samples)