Gliding movements are one of the four major types of movements allowed by synovial joints. Gliding movement of synovial joints includes side to side and back and forth movements only. Gliding is a simple movement and moves the nearly flat bone surfaces back-and-forth and from side-to-side with respect to one another.
Since the angle between the bones mostly remain the same and there is no rotation, gliding movements do not involve the movement of the joint around an axis. Gliding movement exhibits limited range as exemplified by movement between flat articular processes of vertebrae.
