The throat is the passage inside your neck that connects your mouth and nose to your lungs and to the tube that leads to your stomach. When you swallow food, it travels down your throat. When you breathe, air passes through your throat on its way to your lungs. Your throat also contains your voice box, which is why your voice sounds different when you have a sore throat.

You can feel your throat from the outside by gently touching the front of your neck. Inside, your throat does two important jobs at once: it helps keep food out of your lungs (which would make you choke) while letting air flow freely when you breathe. This is why it's hard to breathe and swallow at the same time.

When something gets stuck in your throat, you might cough to clear it. A sore throat is that scratchy, painful feeling you get when you're sick. People also use throat in expressions: when something is shoved down your throat, someone is forcing you to accept it. If competition is cutthroat, it's so fierce that people will do almost anything to win.