Fibrous Joints Vocabulary

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Fibrous Joint

Bones joined by dense fibrous connective tissue; no joint cavity; movement depends on fiber length but mostly immovable.

Suture

Very short connective tissue fibers, immovable; found only in the skull; ossify into synostoses with age.

Syndesmosis

Bones connected by ligaments; movement varies with fiber length (short = little/no movement, long = more movement). Examples: distal tibia-fibula joint, interosseous membrane between radius and ulna

Gomphosis

“Peg-in-socket” joint; immovable; example: tooth anchored in its socket by the periodontal ligament.

Synostosis

The fused form of sutures after ossification (bone-to-bone fusion)