Largest human organ

An organ is defined loosely as any part of an animal or plant that is adapted for a particular function for example respiration, digestion or excretion. Skin is the largest organ in a human body. It comprises two distinct layers, the epidermis and the dermis. The skin of a 180 cm (5 ft 11 in) adult male weighing around 70kg (154 lb) covers an area of 1.5–2 sq m (16.1–21.5 sq ft) and weighs about 3.8 kg (8 lb 5 oz). By comparison, this hypothetical man's liver – his largest internal organ – would weigh only about 1.5 kg (3 lb 4.8 oz).

The idea that the skin is the largest organ has been challenged on several occasions by physicians with different ideas of what constitutes an organ. In his 1990 paper "My Organ is Bigger than Your Organ", Dr Lowell Goldsmith argued that the human musculoskeletal system represents a larger organ by weight, while others have argued in favour of the lungs on the grounds that they have a larger surface area.