Tears

📖 In short

Tears are a slightly salty liquid made by little glands above your eyes. We notice tears when we cry, but your eyes make them all the time in small amounts to wash themselves and stay moist and clean.

🤩 Did you know?

Tear glands make tears every day, even if you don't cry.
Cutting onions makes your eyes water because of a substance that escapes from them.
A newborn baby cries almost without tears in its first weeks.
Tears taste salty because they contain a little salt.

🔎 Find out more

🌟 The eye's wipers

Every time you blink, your eyelids wipe a thin layer of tears over your eye, like a car's windscreen wipers, removing dust and tiny hairs.

🔍 Tears that protect

Tears contain a substance that kills some germs, protecting the eye from infection. And if something gets in your eye, more tears flow to wash it out.

💡 Tears of feeling

We sometimes cry when we're sad or hurt, and sometimes when we're very happy or laugh hard. Crying helps ease our feelings.

🎯 Where do tears go?

Extra tears drain through a tiny hole in the corner of the eye near the nose and run down into the nose. That's why your nose runs when you cry!

🧩 Test yourself

1 What do tears do for the eye?

2 Why does your nose run when you cry?

3 Which picture shows “Tears”?

🫀 Discover more

📷 Picture sources: Wikimedia Commons

Wikimedia Commons · Public domain