Axilla
area of the body beneath the joint between arm and torso
The axilla (pl.: axillae or axillas; also known as the armpit, underarm or oxter) is the area on the human body directly under the shoulder joint. It includes the axillary space, an anatomical space within the shoulder girdle between the arm and the thoracic cage, bounded superiorly by the imaginary plane between the superior borders of the first rib, clavicle and scapula (above which are considered part of the neck), medially by the serratus anterior muscle and thoracolumbar fascia, anteriorly by the pectoral muscles and posteriorly by the subscapularis, teres major and latissimus dorsi muscle.
The soft skin covering the lateral axilla contains many hair and sweat glands. In humans, the formation of body odor happens mostly in the axilla. These odorant substances have been suggested by some to serve as pheromones, which play a role related to mate selection, although this is a controversial topic within the scientific community. The underarms seem more important than the pubic area for emitting body odor, which may be related to human bipedalism.
Structure
Boundaries
Anatomically, the boundaries of the axilla are:
The lower posterior boundary is called the posterior axillary fold and this is a compound structure consisting of the latissimus dorsi and teres major muscles. It can descend after weight loss.
The anterior boundary is called the anterior axillary fold and this is rounded in shape and formed by the lower border of the pectoralis major.
Some sources also include the pectoralis minor.
“Axilla” enters the record as area of the body beneath the joint between arm and torso. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Axilla, area and body can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q499. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Axilla” 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.