Areola
pigmented area on the breast around the nipple
The human areola (areola mammae, or ) is the specialized area of skin on the breast around the nipple that is contrastedly pigmented. More generally, an areola is a small circular area on the body with a different histology from the surrounding tissue, or other small circular areas such as an inflamed region of skin.
The mature human female nipple has several small openings arranged radially around the tip of the lactiferous ducts, from which milk is released during lactation. The other small openings in the areola are sebaceous glands, also known as areolar glands. The nipple and areola are often considered together; many cultures necessitate their covering for public decency.
Shade
The areolae can range from pink to red to brown to dark brown or nearly black, but generally tend to be paler among people with lighter skin tones and darker among people with darker skin tones. A reason for the differing color may be to make the nipple area more visible to the infant.
Hyperpigmentation occurs in most women during the second stage of pregnancy, leading to a temporarily darker shade.
Size and shape
The size and shape of areolae and nipples are also highly variable, with those of women usually being larger than those of men and prepubescent girls. Human areolae are mostly circular in shape, but many women have large areolae that are noticeably elliptical.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Areola” is pigmented area on the breast around the nipple. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Areola, pigmented and area, not as a finished interpretation.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q843533. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Areola” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.