In biological anatomy, commonly referred to as the
mouth, under formal names such as the
oral cavity,
buccal cavity, or in Latin
cavum oris, is the opening through which many animals take in food and issue vocal sounds. It is also the cavity lying at the upper end of the
alimentary canal, bounded on the outside by the lips and inside by the pharynx and containing in
higher vertebrates the tongue and teeth. This cavity is also known as the
buccal cavity, from the Latin
bucca ("cheek").