The purpose of the article is to describe the magnetic resonance imaging characteristics of the most frequently encountered nonsquamous neoplasms of the adult head and neck. The lesions are divided into those arising from the parapharyngeal or carotid spaces, salivary gland neoplasms, neoplasms of the thyroid and parathyroid glands, mesenchymal neoplasms, and lymphoreticular neoplasms. When appropriate, correlative features of other imaging modalities are included in the discussion. Although magnetic resonance imaging can provide critical information in the evaluation of patients with these neck masses, the imaging features of many of the lesions may be nonspecific and complementary data must be obtained from other modalities or biopsy may be necessary.