Objective To compare the value of ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration (FNA) and core needle biopsy (CNB) in diagnosing benign and malignant cervical lymph nodes.Methods A retrospective analysis was performed on 88 patients who received biopsy for cervical lymph node enlargement from January 2015 to May 2017.FNA (n =39) or CNB (n =49) were performed respectively to compare the sensitivity,specificity and accuracy of the two methods in diagnosing benign and malignant cervical lymph node enlargement.Results 84.6％ (33/39) of FNA cases were successfully collected,and 98％ (48/49) of FNA cases were successfully collected for definite pathological diagnosis (P =0.000).The sensitivity,specificity and accuracy of FNA and CNB in diagnosing malignant cervical lymph nodes were 90.9％ and 97.2％,94.1％ and 100％,92.3％ and 98％,respectively.Compared with FNA,there were statistically significant differences in sensitivity,specificity and accuracy in differentiating benign and malignant lymphatic lesions in cervical enlargement (P ＜0.01).The sensitivity and specificity of FNA and CNB in diagnosing cervical lymph node metastatic carcinoma were 100％ and 100％,95.2％ and 100％.Compared with FNA,there was no statistically significant difference in the sensitivity to the diagnosis of cervical lymph node metastatic carcinoma (P =0.102).Conclusions CNB is superior to FNA in sensitivity,specificity and accuracy in diagnosing cervical lymphadenopathy.However,when metastatic cancer was diagnosed,FNA was not significantly different from CNB in sensitivity (P =0.102),and FNA was recommended as the first choice.