- Articulation
- As regards the skeleton, an articulation is a joint, an area where two bones are attached for the purpose of motion of body parts. An articulation or joint is usually formed of fibrous connective tissue and cartilage. Joints are grouped according to their motion: a ball and socket joint; a hinge joint; a condyloid joint (a joint that permits all forms of angular movement except axial rotation); a pivot joint; gliding joint; and a saddle joint. Joints can move in four and only four ways: Gliding — one bony surface glides on another without angular or rotatory movement; Angular — occurs only between long bones, increasing or decreasing the angle between the bones; Circumduction — occurs in joints composed of the head of a bone and an articular cavity, the long bone describing a series of circles, the whole forming a cone; and Rotation — a bone moves about a central axis without moving from this axis. The word "articulation" comes from a Latin root, "articulus" meaning a joint. The word "joint" also comes from the Latin, from "junctio" meaning a joining (as in a junction).
* * *1. SYN: joint. 2. A joining or connecting together loosely so as to allow motion between the parts. 3. Distinct connected speech or enunciation. 4. In dentistry, the contact relationship of the occlusal surfaces of the teeth during jaw movement. [see articulatio]- balanced a. SYN: balanced occlusion.- bicondylar a. SYN: bicondylar joint.- dental a. the contact relationship of the occlusal surfaces of the upper and lower teeth when moving into and away from centric occlusion. SYN: gliding occlusion.- incudomalleolar a. SYN: incudomalleolar joint.
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1) the action or manner in which the parts come together at a joint <a sketch showing the \articulation of the limbs>2 a) a joint between bones or cartilages in the vertebrate skeleton that is immovable when the bones are directly united, slightly movable when they are united by an intervening substance, or more or less freely movable when the articular surfaces are covered with smooth cartilage and surrounded by a joint capsule see AMPHIARTHROSIS, DIARTHROSIS, SYNARTHROSISb) a movable joint between rigid parts of any animal (as between the segments of an insect appendage)3 a) the act or manner of articulatingb) an articulated utterance or soundb) OCCLUSION (2a)* * *
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ar·tic·u·la·tion (ahr-tik″u-laґshən) [L. articulatio] 1. joint; see also articulatio. 2. a place of junction between two different parts or objects. 3. the forming of speech sounds. 4. in dentistry: (a) the contact relationship of the occlusal surfaces of the teeth while in action; (b) the arrangement of artificial teeth so as to accommodate the various positions of the mouth and to serve the purpose of the natural teeth that they are to replace.
Medical dictionary. 2011.