Although papillary thyroid carcinoma may present as a lateral neck mass in 10% to 21% of the cases, it is rare for this disease to metastasize to the retropharyngeal space and initially present as an oropharyngeal mass.1-3 The differential diagnosis of lesions of the retropharyngeal spaces is quite lengthy. However, the most common lesions are inflammatory conditions such as cellulitis, abscess, and suppurative adenopathy. Malignancies, such as squamous cell carcinoma and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, may occur in the retropharyngeal space as a result of direct extension or nodal metastasis.4 The retropharyngeal location of a lesion is suggested by anterior displacement of the parapharyngeal fat on computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Preoperative diagnosis of these lesions using fine-needle aspiration can be hindered by the adjacent neurovascular structures. The few case reports of such rare presentations of metastatic papillary thyroid carcinoma are pre-1985 and, therefore, do not address MRI findings. In this article, we report a case of metastatic papillary thyroid carcinoma initially presenting as a retropharyngeal mass. Characteristic MRI findings of papillary carcinoma elsewhere in the neck are discussed and compared with this case. This rare metastasis is presented to highlight those features that