Skip to content
EasyAnatomyLab
Menu

Lateral meniscus: anatomy, location and function

The lateral meniscus is the smaller of the two knee menisci: a ring of fibrocartilage between the lateral condyles of the femur and tibia, closed off almost into a circle. It deepens the tibial articular surface and absorbs shock by spreading load over a larger area.

Loading 3D model…
View options: body, skin, labels, views
Skin0%
Muscles100%

Structures

Loading… Click the model or search.

Highlighted in the model: Lateral meniscus. Click any part to read about it, or switch off “Highlight topic” to see the whole body. Use Male / Female to switch bodies. 3D data: BodyParts3D, © The Database Center for Life Science; knee ligaments, menisci, tonsils, palate and parotid glands from the Human Reference Atlas Visible Human Male model and female parts from its Visible Human Female model (HuBMAP / NIH); lung lobes built from the BodyParts3D chest; all CC BY 4.0; meshes simplified and recoloured. The default body is an adult male.

Lateral meniscus at a glance

What it is
The lateral meniscus is the smaller of the two knee menisci: a ring of fibrocartilage between the lateral condyles of the femur and tibia, closed off almost into a circle.
Location
It lies on the outer half of the tibial plateau. Its two horns attach close together on the intercondylar area of the tibia, the anterior horn just lateral to the anterior cruciate ligament.
Function
It deepens the tibial articular surface and absorbs shock by spreading load over a larger area.
Body system
Skeletal · paired (left and right)
FMA ID
FMA44631 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)

Key facts

  • Its anterior and posterior roots are very close together, so it is shaped more like an incomplete circle than the open C of the medial meniscus.
  • It is not attached to the fibular collateral ligament, and the popliteus tendon separates part of its posterior horn from the joint capsule, so it is more mobile than the medial meniscus.

Structures next to the lateral meniscus

The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:

References

  1. Foundational Model of Anatomy: Lateral meniscus (FMA44631). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
  2. Radiopaedia. Lateral meniscus.
  3. TeachMeAnatomy. The Knee Joint.
  4. OpenStax. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §7.1 Divisions of the Skeletal System. Rice University, 2022.
  5. Mitsuhashi N. et al. (2009). BodyParts3D: 3D structure database for anatomical concepts. Nucleic Acids Research 37, D782–D785. Data © The Database Center for Life Science, CC BY 4.0.
  6. Browne K., Schlehlein H. (2026). 3D Reference Organ Set for Male, v1.10 (Visible Human Male). Human Reference Atlas 3D Reference Object Library, HuBMAP / NIH. CC BY 4.0.

Related anatomy

Explore the whole body in the interactive 3D human anatomy model, or browse the A–Z list of human structures.