Waldeyer's ring surrounds the naso- and oropharynx, with some of its tonsillar tissue located above and some below the soft palate (and to the back of the mouth cavity).

The ring consists of the (from top to bottom): Some authors speak of two pharyngeal tonsils/two adenoids.

Many authors also speak of lingual tonsils (in the plural), because this accumulation of lymphoid tissue consists of a number of little prominences – many smaller rounded masses.

[citation needed] The palatine tonsils when inflamed/swollen, more common in children, can obstruct respiration.

[1] Waldeyer's ring was named after the nineteenth-century German anatomist Heinrich Wilhelm Gottfried von Waldeyer-Hartz.