Types of Synovial Joints

Rolling Joint

A nonaxial joint that has the simplest movement of all joints. It moves either back and forth or side to side.

Ball-and-socket joint

Ball-and-socket joints are the most mobile of the joints. They allow movement in all three planes. Examples of these joints are the shoulder and hip.

Spinning Joint

In a spinning movement, one joint surface rotates on another much like twisting the lid off of a jar. An example of a spin movement in the human body is the head of the radius (a bone of the forearm) rotating on the end of the humerus during pronation and supination of the forearm.

Condyloid joint

Movement predominantly occurs in one plane (flexion and extension in the sagittal plane) with minimal movement in the others (rotation in the transverse plane; adduction and abduction in the frontal plane)

Saddle joint

This joint is only found in the carpometacarpal joint in the thumb. It allows movement predominantly in two planes of motion (flexion and extension in the sagittal plane; adduction and abduction in the frontal plane) with some rotation to produce circumduction (circular motion).

Gliding Joint

A gliding (plane) joint is a nonaxial joint that has the simplest movement of all joints. It moves either back and forth or side to side. An example is the joint between the navicular bone and the second and third cuneiform bones in the foot or the carpals of the hand and in the facet (spine) joints.

Hinge Joint

A uniaxial joint allowing movement predominantly in only one plane of motion, the sagittal plane. Joints such as the elbow, interphalangeal (toe), and ankle are considered hinge joints

Pivot joints

Allow movement in predominantly one plane of motion (rotation, pronation, and supination in the transverse plane). These joints are found in the atlantoaxial joint at the base of the skull (top of spine) and the proximal radioulnar joint at the elbow.

Sliding Joint

one part of a bone slides over another bone