Hand Diagram – Labeled Palm, Back of the Hand and Knuckles

All 18 parts on the diagram

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The palm 12

Thumb It has two phalanges and one bending joint; each finger has two.
Index finger Also called the pointer finger or forefinger.
Middle finger Usually the longest finger of the hand.
Ring finger In many countries the finger a wedding ring goes on.
Little finger Also called the pinky; the hypothenar eminence sits below it.
Palm The inside of the hand; anatomy calls this side palmar.
Wrist Eight small carpal bones sit inside the wrist.
Thenar eminence Formed by the thumb muscles; all of them move the thumb.
Hypothenar eminence Formed by three muscles that move the little finger.
Web space It stretches when the thumb moves away from the fingers.
Fingertip Packed with touch receptors; each pad has its own print.
Wrist crease Marks where the palm ends and the forearm begins.

The back of the hand 6

Fingernail Grows from the nail matrix, under the skin at its base.
Back of the hand Anatomy calls it the dorsum of the hand.
Knuckles The metacarpophalangeal joints: finger bones meet the hand bones here.
Middle finger joints The middle joint of each finger; the thumb has none.
End finger joints The last joint of each finger, next to the nail.
Thumb joint The thumb has one interphalangeal joint; each finger has two.

How this list was compiled: Every name and detail line was checked on 2026-09-29 against OpenStax Anatomy and Physiology 2e, section 8.2 (Bones of the Upper Limb: eight carpal bones; digits 2 to 5 have three phalanges each; the metacarpophalangeal joint, whose metacarpal ends form the knuckles) and section 11.5 (the thenar muscles form the thenar eminence and act on the thumb; three hypothenar muscles form the hypothenar eminence and act on the little finger), https://openstax.org/books/anatomy-and-physiology-2e/pages/8-2-bones-of-the-upper-limb and https://openstax.org/books/anatomy-and-physiology-2e/pages/11-5-muscles-of-the-pectoral-girdle-and-upper-limbs, and against Wikipedia: Metacarpophalangeal joint (the joints in the knuckles), Interphalangeal joints of the hand (proximal and distal in each finger, one joint in the thumb), Thenar eminence and Hypothenar eminence. Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-10-04: the outline of the palm, thumb, wrist and forearm was read point by point off Gray's Anatomy of the Human Body (20th US edition, 1918), fig. 1237, Palm of left hand, showing position of skin creases and bones, drawn by Henry Vandyke Carter, public domain (Wikimedia Commons, File:Gray1237.png), mirrored to a right hand; the palm and wrist creases follow the same plate, the fingers are built from its measures and fanned slightly apart, and the back view is the same outline turned over, with nails and knuckle folds checked by eye against fig. 1234 of the same book. Licence: own drawing; outlines after a public domain plate

How it works

Every name here is a part you can see or feel from outside: no bones and no muscles. The everyday word comes first, such as knuckles, and the anatomy term, such as metacarpophalangeal joints, counts too when you type it.

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Palm and back of one hand

The same right hand is drawn twice with the fingers pointing right: the palm, with the thumb at the bottom, and the back, turned over, with the thumb at the top. A finger or the thumb lights up in both drawings.

Everyday words first

Numbers 1 to 8 are everyday words, from thumb to fingernail. Numbers 9 to 18 are the back of the hand, the three rows of finger joints and the names an anatomy class adds, such as the thenar eminence.

Thenar comes from the Ancient Greek word for the palm of the hand.
Anatomy numbers the digits 1 to 5, starting at the thumb.

Questions and answers

What are the parts of the hand called?

On the palm side: the wrist, the palm, the thumb and four fingers, the thenar eminence at the base of the thumb and the hypothenar eminence on the little finger side. On the back: the back of the hand, the knuckles and the nails.

What are the joints of the fingers called?

Each finger has three: the knuckle where it meets the hand (the metacarpophalangeal joint), the proximal interphalangeal joint about halfway along, and the distal interphalangeal joint near the tip. The thumb has a knuckle and one interphalangeal joint.

Which knuckles are which on a hand diagram?

The big bumps in a row across the back of the hand are the knuckles, the metacarpophalangeal joints. The next row along the fingers is the PIP joints, and the small row nearest the nails is the DIP joints.

What are the five fingers called?

The thumb, the index finger (also pointer or forefinger), the middle finger, the ring finger and the little finger, or pinky. Strictly the thumb is a digit and not a finger, but everyday English counts five fingers.