Glossectomy means surgical removal of the tongue. The homophone term glossectomee is sometimes used to denote a patient who has undergone glossectomy surgery. Historically, glossectomies comprised the whole or near-whole tongue, leaving the speaker with severe disability related to speech, eating, and swallowing. In recent decades, the surgeries have become more circumscribed, or tongue cancer is even treated with a nonsurgical organ preservation approach. The term glossectomy is used to describe surgical intervention related to malignant tumors of the tongue. Most of this entry relates to cancer surgery of the tongue. In the final section, brief mention is also made of tongue reduction surgery for congenital macroglossia, correction of shortened tongue frenulum (ankyloglossia), and cosmetic tongue splitting.