Pawtucket (/pəˈtʌkɪt/ ^ⓘ pə-TUK-it) is a city in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 75,604 at the 2020 census, making the city the fourth-largest in the state. Pawtucket borders Providence and East Providence to the south, Central Falls and Lincoln to the north, and North Providence to the west. The city also borders the Massachusetts municipalities of Seekonk and Attleboro.

Pawtucket was an early and important center of textile manufacturing. It is home to Slater Mill, a historic textile mill recognized for helping to found the Industrial Revolution in the United States.

The name "Pawtucket" comes from the Algonquian word for "river fall."

The Pawtucket region was said to have been one of the most populous places in New England prior to the arrival of European settlers. American Indians would catch the salmon and smaller fish that gathered at the falls. The first settler here was Joseph Jenckes Jr. who came to the region from Lynn, Massachusetts. He purchased about 60 acres near Pawtucket Falls in 1671, then established a sawmill and forge. The entire town was destroyed during King Philip's War.

Other settlers followed Jenks, and the area became home to manufacturers of muskets, linseed oil, potash, and ships by 1775. Also around this time, Oziel Wilkinson and his family set up an iron forge that made anchors, nails, screws, farm implements, and cannons.

In the 1790s, investors started to build mills along the Blackstone River, which caused conflict over water rights and impacted local workers' lives. Following some difficulties in the textile industry in the early 1820s, a group of mill owners decided to extend the daily hours and lower the income of power-loom weavers, who were at the time all women aged 15–30 years. This led to the first factory strike in the US in May 1824, when about one hundred women left their workplaces at the mills, causing them to shut down. A large number of workers then joined the strike, which lasted from May 26 to June 3, when a compromise was reached. This first walkout led to labor organizing and further strikes in the whole region.

By the 1920s, Pawtucket was a prosperous mill town. The city had a half-dozen movie theaters, two dozen hotels, and an impressive collection of fine commercial and residential architecture. Perhaps the most impressive public building in Pawtucket was the Leroy Theatre, an ornate movie palace that was called "Pawtucket's Million Dollar Theater". Many wealthy mill owners such as Darius Goff built their mansions in the area.

In 1922, it was affected by the 1922 New England Textile Strike, shutting down the mills in the city over an attempted wage cut and hours increase.