femur

Also known as thigh bone, os femoris

The femur (; : femurs or femora ), or thigh bone is the only bone in the thigh — the region of the lower limb between the hip and the knee. In many four-legged animals, the femur is the upper bone of the hindleg.

AI overview

The femur, commonly called the thighbone, is the single bone that makes up your thigh, the area of your leg between your hip and knee. It's an important structural bone found in humans and many four-legged animals, where it forms the upper part of the hind leg.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Key facts

Bone.Name: Femur
Bone.Latin: os femoris, os longissimum
Bone.Image: Femur - anterior view2.png
Bone.Caption: Position of femur (shown in red)
Bone.Image2: Gray252.png
Bone.Caption2: Left femur seen from behind
Bone.Origins: Gastrocnemius, vastus lateralis, vastus medialis and vastus intermedius
Bone.Insertions: Gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, gluteus minimus, iliopsoas, lateral rotator group, adductors of the hip
Bone.Articulations: Hip: acetabulum of pelvis superiorlyknee: with the tibia and patella inferiorly

via Wikipedia infobox

Research

115,409 papers

Femur's nutrient artery canal with lytic lesion appearance: Leave this alone.British journal of hospital medicine (London, England : 2005) · 2024Tonkaz G, Akdeniz C, Aslan SDOI: 10.12968/hmed.2023.0419
Mechanical validation of whole bone composite femur models.ReviewJournal of biomechanics · 1996Cristofolini L, Viceconti M, Cappello A et al.DOI: 10.1016/0021-9290(95)00084-4
The current state of biomechanical analyses of the adult human femur: A systematic review.Journal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials · 2025Oldham B, Manzur O, Nagaraja KM et al.DOI: 10.1016/j.jmbbm.2025.107158
Percutaneous Plating of the Medial Distal Femur: Cadaveric Dissection.Journal of orthopaedic trauma · 2025Carlson B, Trumbo M, Bedward D et al.DOI: 10.1097/BOT.0000000000002989
New insights on the proximal femur biomechanics using Digital Image Correlation.Journal of biomechanics · 2020Katz Y, Yosibash ZDOI: 10.1016/j.jbiomech.2020.109599
Axial and Rotational Malreduction (Golf Club Deformity) in Distal Femur Fractures.Journal of orthopaedic trauma · 2022Lowe J, Alhandi A, Manoharan A et al.DOI: 10.1097/BOT.0000000000002373
Development of Local Software for Automatic Measurement of Geometric Parameters in the Proximal Femur Using a Combination of a Deep Learning Approach and an Active Shape Model on X-ray Images.Journal of imaging informatics in medicine · 2024Alavi H, Seifi M, Rouhollahei M et al.DOI: 10.1007/s10278-023-00953-3
Intramedullary nail design for Thais with novel multi-femur shape optimization approach.Scientific reports · 2026Sayabut D, Virulsri C, Tangpornprasert PDOI: 10.1038/s41598-026-35172-7

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Wikidata facts

Image: Thigh bone - Femur 1 -- Smart-Servier.png

Show 3 more facts

Commons category: Femur
tensile modulus of elasticity: 17200
NCI Thesaurus ID: C12717

Sources (7)

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~15 min read

Article

16 sections

Contents

Structure
Upper part
Body
Lower part
Development
Function
Muscle attachments
Clinical significance
Fractures
Cortical desmoid
Other animals
Viral metagenomics
Invertebrates
Additional media
References
External links

The top of the femur fits into a socket in the pelvis called the hip joint, and the bottom of the femur connects to the shinbone (tibia) and kneecap (patella) to form the knee. In humans the femur is the largest and thickest bone in the body.