Knee Joint Anatomy Quiz – Ligaments, Menisci and Bursae

All 17 parts on the diagram

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From the front 10

Femur (thigh bone) The thigh bone, which ends in two rounded condyles. A notch lies between them.
Tibia (shinbone) The shinbone, whose flat top carries the weight from the femur.
Fibula The thin bone on the outer side of the leg. It is not part of the knee joint, but a knee ligament ends on its head.
Medial meniscus A C-shaped pad of fibrocartilage on the inner half of the tibia. It is fixed to the medial collateral.
Lateral meniscus A C-shaped pad of fibrocartilage on the outer half of the tibia. It is smaller than the medial one and moves more freely.
Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) It stops the tibia sliding forward under the femur. It runs from the front of the top of the tibia up and back into the notch of the femur.
Posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) It stops the tibia sliding backward under the femur. It runs from the back of the top of the tibia up and forward to the inner condyle.
Medial collateral ligament (MCL) A wide, flat band on the inner side of the knee. It runs from the femur to the tibia and stops the knee bending sideways.
Lateral collateral ligament (LCL) A round cord on the outer side of the knee. It runs from femur to the fibula's head.
Transverse ligament of the knee A thin band across the front of the joint. It links the front ends of the two menisci.

Cut front to back 7

Patella (kneecap) The kneecap, a bone that forms inside the quadriceps tendon. It slides on the femur's front.
Quadriceps tendon The tendon of the big muscle on the front of the thigh. It ends on the top of the patella.
Patellar ligament The band that carries on from the quadriceps tendon below the patella. It ends on the bump at the front of the tibia.
Articular cartilage Smooth hyaline cartilage on the surfaces that meet in the joint.
Infrapatellar fat pad A wedge of fat below the patella, behind the patellar ligament.
Suprapatellar bursa A pouch above the patella, between the quadriceps tendon and the femur. It lets the tendon glide over the bone.
Prepatellar bursa A thin sac between the front of the patella and the skin.

How this list was compiled: Every name and detail line was checked on 2026-09-30 against TeachMeAnatomy, The Knee Joint, https://teachmeanatomy.info/lower-limb/joints/knee-joint/; Kenhub, Knee joint, https://www.kenhub.com/en/library/anatomy/the-knee-joint; Gray, Anatomy of the Human Body, 20th edition, 1918 (public domain), the section on the knee joint, https://archive.org/details/anatomyofhumanbo00grayrich; and Wikipedia, Knee, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knee. The wording is in our own words. Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-09-30 from plain geometry; nothing traced. Licence: own work

How it works

A right knee drawn twice: from the front with the kneecap taken away, and cut through from front to back. It covers the parts of a knee joint a course asks for: seventeen to find and name.

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From the front: two crossed, two at the sides

The femur sits on the tibia with a meniscus under each condyle. In the notch between the condyles the anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments cross. The broad medial collateral ligament runs down the inner side, and the cord-like lateral collateral ligament runs down the outer side to the fibula.

The cut: kneecap, tendons and sacs

The patella lies inside one long band: quadriceps tendon above it, patellar ligament below. The suprapatellar bursa is above the patella, the prepatellar bursa in front, the fat pad below. The quiz asks you to label the structures of the knee on both drawings.

Cruciates are named for where they start on the tibia: anterior at the front, posterior at the back.
The lateral collateral ligament is the only one here that ends on the fibula.

Questions and answers

What are the four main ligaments of the knee?

Two cruciate ligaments inside the joint, anterior and posterior, which cross each other, and two collateral ligaments at the sides, medial and lateral. The cruciates stop the tibia sliding forward or back; the collaterals stop the knee bending sideways.

What do the menisci do?

The menisci, medial and lateral, are C-shaped fibrocartilage pads on top of the tibia. They deepen the surface the femur sits on, which steadies the joint, and they spread the load like shock absorbers.

Which bones make up the knee joint?

Three: the femur, the tibia and the patella. The femur meets the tibia, and the patella slides on the front of the femur. The fibula stands beside the tibia but is not part of the joint.

Is the patellar ligament a tendon or a ligament?

Both names are used. It is the lower part of the quadriceps tendon, running on from the patella to the tibia, so it joins bone to bone like a ligament and carries the pull of a muscle like a tendon.