Hand Bones Quiz

A right hand, palm up: all 8 wrist bones and the bones of the palm and fingers.

Hand Bones Quiz

Name Date

Tap the pisiform

1 of 12

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Write the name of each numbered bone.Answer key

  1. Scaphoid
  2. Lunate
  3. Triquetrum
  4. Pisiform
  5. Trapezium
  6. Trapezoid
  7. Capitate
  8. Hamate
  9. Metacarpals (1 to 5)
  10. Proximal phalanges
  11. Middle phalanges
  12. Distal phalanges

Drawn for this site on 2026-10-04, as a right hand seen from the palm with the thumb on the right. Licence: own drawing; outlines after public domain plates.

Each numbered ring is a button. Use the arrow keys to move between them and Enter to choose. Names are read out in Study, and once a bone is answered.

Next step Next: the radius and ulna of the forearm

All 12 bones on the diagram

Show the list

Start here: 7 main bones 7

  1. Scaphoid The first of the proximal row from the thumb side. Its name means boat-shaped. It meets the radius at the wrist.
  2. Lunate The moon-shaped bone of the proximal row. With the scaphoid it meets the radius directly.
  3. Trapezium The first bone of the distal row, counting from the thumb side. Its name means table.
  4. Capitate The head-shaped bone, third in the distal row from the thumb side.
  5. Metacarpals (1 to 5) The five long bones of the palm. They are numbered 1 to 5 from the thumb. Their heads form the knuckles.
  6. Proximal phalanges The phalanx nearest the palm on each digit. It meets its metacarpal at the knuckle.
  7. Distal phalanges The last phalanx of each digit, at the fingertip.

The eight carpals 4

  1. Triquetrum The three-cornered bone of the proximal row. The pisiform sits on its front.
  2. Pisiform The small pea-shaped bone on the front of the triquetrum. It makes the bump at the base of the hand, little-finger side.
  3. Trapezoid The second bone of the distal row. Its name means it resembles a table.
  4. Hamate The hooked bone at the little-finger end of the distal row. The hook is on its front.

Palm and fingers: 4 1

  1. Middle phalanges The middle phalanx of fingers 2 to 5. The thumb has none.

How this list was compiled: Read 2026-09-26. OpenStax Anatomy and Physiology 2e, section 8.2 Bones of the Upper Limb, https://openstax.org/books/anatomy-and-physiology-2e/pages/8-2-bones-of-the-upper-limb : eight carpal bones in a proximal row (lateral to medial: scaphoid, lunate, triquetrum, pisiform, with the pisiform on the anterior surface of the triquetrum forming the bump at the medial base of the hand) and a distal row (trapezium, trapezoid, capitate, hamate, the hamate with a hook); the scaphoid and lunate articulating with the radius; the mnemonic So Long To Pinky, Here Comes The Thumb; five metacarpals numbered 1 to 5 from the thumb, their distal ends forming the knuckles; 14 phalanges, the thumb (pollex) with a proximal and a distal phalanx and digits 2 to 5 with proximal, middle and distal phalanges. Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-10-04, as a right hand seen from the palm with the thumb on the right. Where each bone of the fingers and palm begins and ends, its length, its widths and the splay of the fingers were measured off Gray's Anatomy of the Human Body (20th US edition, 1918), fig. 219, Bones of the left hand, volar surface, drawn by Henry Vandyke Carter, public domain (Wikimedia Commons, File:Gray219.png). The outlines of the eight carpals and of the ends of the radius and ulna were read off the plate of the left wrist from the volar side in Johannes Sobotta's Atlas and Text-book of Human Anatomy (1909), public domain (Wikimedia Commons, File:Sobo 1909 127.png). Both plates show a left hand with the fingers down and were mirrored top to bottom to give a right hand with the fingers up. The thumb is turned to face the viewer, and the pisiform is drawn smaller than it shows so the triquetrum can be seen round it. Licence: own drawing; outlines after public domain plates

How it works

A hand bones quiz on a right hand seen from the palm, thumb on the right: all eight carpals by name, then the metacarpals and the three rows of phalanges. Start with the 7 main bones, then the carpals one by one.

Read the full guide

The eight carpals

The wrist has two rows of four. From the thumb side, the row nearest the forearm is scaphoid, lunate, triquetrum and pisiform; the row nearest the palm is trapezium, trapezoid, capitate and hamate.

Palm and fingers

Five metacarpals, numbered 1 to 5 from the thumb, make the palm; their heads are the knuckles. Each finger has proximal, middle and distal phalanges, 14 bones in all, because the thumb has only two.

  • So Long To Pinky, Here Comes The Thumb: scaphoid, lunate, triquetrum, pisiform, then back along hamate, capitate, trapezoid, trapezium.

Questions and answers

How many bones are in the hand?

Counting the wrist: 8 carpals, 5 metacarpals and 14 phalanges, 27 in all.

What is the difference between trapezium and trapezoid?

Both sit in the distal row on the thumb side. The trapezium is first, at the base of the thumb; the trapezoid is next to it, toward the index finger.

Why does the thumb have fewer phalanges?

The thumb, digit 1, has only a proximal and a distal phalanx. The other four fingers each have three: proximal, middle and distal.

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