Organs are parts of the body that each do a certain job. Think of them like parts in an automobile: steering wheel, gears, engine, body, wheels, radiator and so on. Each one does a single job, but when linked together they allow the automobile to do a wide range of things, such as starting, stopping, steering, going backwards and forwards etc.

The body has about 78 organs. They are very different from one another. Your heart, for example, is an organ made of muscles, but your skeleton is made of hard bone.

In general, the organs do all of the day to day, minute by minute, second by second jobs that are needed to keep us alive and healthy.

When people talk of organs, they often think of things like the heart and the liver, but our biggest organ is our skin that wraps around our skeleton and keeps all of the other organs together.

The most important organs for life are the heart and brain. The brain is our computer, while the heart makes sure every other organ gets nourishment of various kinds.

The picture above shows some of the organs that are most familiar to us.

Organs often work in groups. Here are the main groups. Click any organ to find out more.

Pumping blood, oxygen and food: Pumping blood to and from the body and lungs with heart, blood and blood vessels.

Dealing with solid food: Digesting food with teeth, saliva, stomach, liver, intestines, colon.

Sending messages: Hormones.

Dealing with liquids: Kidneys, bladder.

Keeping bugs at bay: Our immune system including tonsils, adenoids and spleen.

Skin : skin, hair and nails.

Muscles: movement with muscles.

Nerves: sending information to the brain from skin, ears, eyes, mouth and nose.

Making babies
Sex organs

Breathing
Lungs and diaphragm.

Bones
Bones, cartilage, ligaments and tendons.