Hip joint
Also called: ball and socket joint
What it means
The hip joint is the ball-and-socket joint where the thigh bone meets the pelvis, letting the leg move freely while supporting body weight.
Hip fractures are common and serious, and the femoral neck here is a key area doctors watch closely for bone health.
The hip joint is where the femoral head—the rounded 'ball' at the top of your thigh bone—fits into a cup-shaped socket in the pelvis. This design lets you move your leg in almost every direction while bearing your full body weight. The femoral neck, a narrower section just below the ball, connects it to the shaft of the femur and is the spot most hip fractures occur.
This joint handles different kinds of stress depending on what you're doing. Walking on flat ground loads it fairly gently, but standing on one leg, climbing stairs, or moving sideways puts more targeted force through the femoral neck. Some experts suggest that varied, more challenging movement may offer different benefits than walking alone, though any exercise plan should be discussed with your doctor.
Because the hip joint carries so much weight and absorbs impact daily, keeping the surrounding bone and muscle strong matters for staying mobile. A bone density scan often checks this area specifically, since femoral neck strength is a key marker doctors use to judge hip fracture risk.
How sure is this?
Graded Established Science: Supported by broad scientific consensus and decades of research. Read each study with its grade in mind. One study is a piece of the picture, not the whole of it.
The hip joint supports your body weight, and its femoral neck is a key site doctors watch for bone health.
Where this leads
WordThe femoral neck is a key part of the hip joint doctors track closely. Curious why it's the most common site for hip fractures?
Where the Academy teaches it
This page is the short version. The lessons teach it in full, with the context around it and a quiz to lock it in.
Related words
The femoral neck is the angled part of bone joining your hip ball to your thigh bone shaft, and it's the most common…
The femoral head is the rounded, ball-shaped top of the thighbone (femur) that fits into the hip socket to form the…
A hip fracture is a break at the femoral neck, the narrow part of bone connecting the hip joint ball to the thigh…
The femur, or thigh bone, is the longest and strongest bone in the body, stretching from the hip to the knee and…
The greater trochanter is the bony bump on the outer side of your upper thigh, part of the femur (thighbone), where…
Bone mineral density (BMD) measures how much mineral is packed into your bones, usually estimated with a DEXA scan,…
Education only, not medical advice. Decisions about tests, medications and treatment belong with your own doctor. OsteoStrong does not diagnose, treat or cure any disease.
