Bodily Oddities

Tongue twisting

Also called: Tongue turning · Tongue rotation

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.

Mouth and throat Muscle Trick Voluntary
Try it Learnable Party trick

How common

12–36% Common · 10–50% Many people can twist one way but not the other.

Can you do this?

These are answers from visitors, not a study.

How it works

Tongue twisting means rotating the front of the tongue around its long axis. A half twist puts one edge on top and the other edge at the bottom. A full twist turns the tongue upside down, so the underside faces up.

The twist comes from contracting the muscles on one side of the tongue more than the other2. One side shortens and lifts. The other side stays long and drops. The tongue rotates between them. Most people who can twist have a strong side. Twisting to the left may be easy while twisting to the right is impossible.

Between 12% and 36% of people can twist the tongue at least halfway1. The wide range comes from different study definitions. Some count any rotation. Others count only a full turn.

The ability is partly learned. People who practise in a mirror often gain a few more degrees of rotation. No formal studies exist on how far training can go.

Try it

  1. Push your tongue out a little and keep it relaxed.
  2. Try to lift the left edge while keeping the right edge down. The tongue should start to tilt.
  3. Push the tilt further. A half twist puts one edge straight up.
  4. Now try the other direction. Most people find one side much harder.
  5. Check in a mirror or on your phone camera. Compare with videos of a full twist3.

Sources and further material

  1. Encyclopedia Tongue rolling Prevalence figures for twisting and related tongue shapes.
  2. Encyclopedia Tongue
  3. Video Tongue twisting demonstration YouTube search.
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 folding

Folding the tip of the tongue backward over itself inside the mouth. Between 14% and 27.5% of people can do it.

14–27.5%
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)
Mouth Trick

Pointed 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.

~55%