Macedonians (Greek: Μακεδόνες, Makedónes), also known as Greek Macedonians or Macedonian Greeks, are a regional and historical population group of ethnic Greeks, inhabiting or originating from the Greek region of Macedonia, in Northern Greece. Most Macedonians live in or around the regional capital city of Thessaloniki and other cities and towns in Macedonia (Greece), while many have spread across Greece and in the diaspora.

The name Macedonia (Greek: Μακεδονία, Makedonía) comes from the ancient Greek word μακεδνός (Makednos). It is commonly explained as having originally meant "a tall one" or "highlander", possibly descriptive of the Makedones. The shorter English name variant Macedon developed in Middle English, based on a borrowing from the French form of the name, Macédoine.

Greek populations have inhabited the region of Macedonia since ancient times. The rise of Macedon, from a small kingdom at the periphery of Classical Greek affairs, to one which came to dominate the entire Hellenic world, occurred under the reign of Philip II. Philip's son, Alexander the Great (356–323 BC), managed to briefly extend Macedonian power not only over the central Greek city-states, but also over the entire Persian empire which he toppled, including Egypt, and later went on towards lands as far east as the fringes of India today Pakistan. Alexander's adoption of the styles of government of the conquered territories was accompanied by the spread of Greek culture and learning through his vast empire. Although the empire fractured into multiple Hellenic regimes shortly after his death, his conquests left a lasting legacy, not least in the new Greek-speaking cities founded across Persia's western territories, heralding the Hellenistic period. In the partition of Alexander's empire among the Diadochi, Macedonia fell to the Antipatrid dynasty, which was overthrown by the Antigonid dynasty after only a few years, in 294 BC. Ancient Macedonian, whether it was a Greek dialect probably of the Northwestern Doric group in particular, as findings such as Pella curse tablet indicate, or a separate Hellenic language, was gradually replaced by Attic Greek; the latter came in use from the times of Philip II of Macedon and later evolved into Koine Greek.

After the Roman conquest of the Balkans, the Macedonians were an integral component of the people of the Roman province of Macedonia. Under Roman control and later in the Byzantine Empire the region saw also the influx of many ethnicities (Armenians, Slavs, Aromanians etc.) that settled in the area where the ancient Macedonians lived.^{[citation needed]} The region had also since ancient times a significant Romaniote Jew population. In the late Byzantine period much of central Macedonia was ruled by a Latin Crusader state based in Thessalonica, before being ruled for a while by the rival emperor Theodore Komnenos Doukas and his descendants and subsequently re-incorporated into the Byzantine Empire centred in Constantinople. The territory of western Macedonia was subsequently contested between the main powers in the region, the Byzantine Empire, the Despotate of Epirus, the rulers of Thessaly, the Serbian Empire, and the Bulgarian Empire.

After the Ottoman conquest and towards the end of the Ottoman era, the term Macedonia came to signify a region in the north of the Greek peninsula different from the previous Byzantine theme. In Ottoman Macedonia, Greeks, Aromanians, Slavs, Jews, Albanians and Turks lived side-by-side but in self-contained communities, while in western Macedonia (Greece) there were sizable populations of Greek Muslims such as the Vallahades. The matter of the multicultural composition of the people of Macedonia came to be known as the Macedonian Question. Thessaloniki remained the largest city where the most Macedonians resided.

The Greek War of Independence refers to the efforts of the Greeks to establish an independent Greek state, at the time that Greece was part of the Ottoman Empire. The revolution was initially planned and organized through secret organizations, most notable of which the Filiki Eteria, that operated in Greece and other European regions outside the Ottoman Empire. Macedonian Greeks were actively involved in those early revolutionary movements; among the first was Grigorios Zalykis, a writer, who founded the Hellenoglosso Xenodocheio, a precursor of the Filiki Eteria. Even after the end of the Greek national revolution, there were several revolts in Macedonia with all of them having as their stated aim the union of the region with the Kingdom of Greece.

The Greek revolution in Macedonia started in Chalkidiki, where the population was almost entirely Greek. On 28 May 1821, Yussuf Bey of Thessaloniki, alarmed by the danger of a general insurrection, demanded hostages from the region. At the time that his troops arrived at Polygyros, the local insurgents and monks from Mount Athos rose up and killed the Turkish voivod and his guards, compelling the Ottomans to retire to Thessaloniki. Yussuf Bey took the revenge by beheading a bishop, impaling three dignitaries while in durance and imprisoning a lot of Christians in Thessaloniki. The Ottomans also turned Muslims and Jews against the Greeks, stating that the latter intended to exterminate non-Christian populations. That was the first accomplishment of the Greek side under Emmanouel Pappas, who had assumed at the time the title of "General of Macedonia"; he managed to capture Chalkidiki and threaten Thessaloniki but, in June, the Greek forces retreated from Vasilika and were finally superseded. Letters from the period show Pappas either being addressed or signing himself as "Leader and Defender of Macedonia" and is today considered a Greek hero along with the unnamed Macedonians that fought with him. The revolution in Chalkidiki ended on 27 December, with the submission of Mount Athos to the Ottomans.

While conflicts endured for some time in Macedonia, such as the one in Naousa with notable figures being Anastasios Karatasos, Aggelis Gatsos and Zafeirakis Theodosiou, it was the defeat of Pappas that was the turning point in the oppression of the Macedonian revolt in the Greek War of Independence at the time. While the revolution led to the establishment of the independent modern Greek state in the south, which earned international recognition in 1832, Greek resistance movements continued to operate in the territories that remained under Ottoman control, including Macedonia as well as Thessaly, Epirus and Crete. Events of the Russo-Turkish Crimean War in 1854 ignited a new Macedonian revolt that was spawned in Chalkidiki. One of the prime instigators of the revolt was Dimitrios Karatasos, son of Anastasios Karatasos, better known as Tsamis Karatasos or Yero Tsamis. The insurrections of the Macedonian Greeks had the support of King Otto of Greece, who thought that liberation of Macedonia and other parts of Greece was possible, hoping on Russian support. The revolt however failed in its part having deteriorated the Greco-Turkish relations for the years to come.