Novi Sad (Serbian: Нови Сад, pronounced [nôʋiː sâːd] ^ⓘ; see below for other names) is the second largest city in Serbia and the administrative center of the autonomous province of Vojvodina. It is located in the southern portion of the Pannonian Plain on the border of the Bačka and Syrmia geographical regions, lying on the banks of the Danube river, and facing the northern slopes of Fruška Gora. According to the 2022 census^[update], the population of Novi Sad city proper stands at 260,438, its contiguous urban area has 325,511 inhabitants, and the population of its administrative area totals 368,967 people. It is the fifth largest city on the Danube river and the largest that is not a national capital.

Novi Sad was founded in 1694, when Serb merchants formed a colony across the Danube from the Petrovaradin Fortress, a strategic Habsburg military post. In subsequent centuries, it became an important trading, manufacturing and cultural centre, and has historically been dubbed the Serbian Athens. The city was heavily devastated in the 1848 Revolution, but was subsequently rebuilt and restored. Today, along with the Serbian capital city of Belgrade, Novi Sad is an industrial and financial center important to the Serbian economy.

Novi Sad was the European Youth Capital in 2019 and a European Capital of Culture in 2022. It became a UNESCO Creative City of Media Arts in 2023.

The name Novi Sad means "new plantation" in Serbian. Its Latin name, stemming from the establishment of Habsburg city rights, is Neoplanta. The official names of Novi Sad in local administration are:

In both Croatian and Romanian, which are official in provincial administration, the city is called Novi Sad. Historically, the city was called Neusatz and Neusatz an der Donau (translated as 'Novi Sad on the Danube') in German.

In its wider meaning, the name new plantation refers to the "City of Novi Sad", one of the city-level administrative units of Serbia, which includes Novi Sad proper on the left bank of the Danube, the towns of Sremska Kamenica and Petrovaradin on the right bank and the extensive suburbs of the left bank. Novi Sad can also refer strictly to only the urban areas of the city (Novi Sad proper and the towns of Sremska Kamenica and Petrovaradin), or only to the historical core on the left bank, i.e. Novi Sad proper excluding Sremska Kamenica and Petrovaradin.

Principality of Hungary 895-1000
Kingdom of Hungary 1000–1526
Ottoman Empire 1526–1687
Habsburg monarchy 1694–1804
Austrian Empire 1804–1867
Austro-Hungarian Empire 1867–1918
Kingdom of Serbia 1918
Kingdom of Yugoslavia 1918–1941
Kingdom of Hungary 1941–1944
SFR Yugoslavia 1944–1992
Serbia and Montenegro 1992–2006
Republic of Serbia 2006–

Human habitation in the territory of present-day Novi Sad has been traced as far back as the Stone Age. Several settlements and necropolises dating to 5000 BC were unearthed during the construction of a new boulevard in Avijatičarsko Naselje. A settlement was also identified on the right bank of the river Danube in present-day Petrovaradin.