Pencak silat (Indonesian pronunciation: [ˈpənt͡ʃaʔ ˈsilat]; in Western writings sometimes spelled "pentjak silat" or phonetically as "penchak silat") is a class of related Indonesian martial arts. In neighbouring countries, the term usually refers to professional competitive silat. It is a full-body fighting form incorporating strikes, grappling, and throwing, in addition to weaponry. Every part of the body is used and subject to attack. Pencak silat was practiced not only for physical defense but also for psychological ends. There are hundreds of different pencak silat styles (aliran) and schools (perguruan) which tend to focus either on strikes, joint manipulation, weaponry, or some combination thereof.

The International Pencak Silat Federation (IPSF), or PERSILAT (Persekutuan Pencak Silat Antarabangsa), is the international pencak silat governing organization and the only pencak silat organisation recognised by the Olympic Council of Asia. The organisation was established on 11 March 1980, in Jakarta and consisted of the national organisations of Brunei Darussalam (Persekutuan Silat Kebangsaan Brunei Darussalam) (PERSIB), Indonesia (Ikatan Pencak Silat Indonesia) (IPSI), Malaysia (Persekutuan Silat Kebangsaan) (PESAKA), and Singapore (Persekutuan Silat Singapura) (PERSISI).

Pencak silat is included in the Southeast Asian Games and other region-wide competitions. Pencak silat made its debut in the 1987 Southeast Asian Games and 2018 Asian Games, both held in Indonesia.

Pencak silat was recognized as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity from Indonesia by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) on December 12, 2019.

Silat is a collective word for a class of indigenous martial arts from the geo-cultural area of Indonesia and throughout South East Asian nations with Malay historic populations, more precisely in the Indonesian Archipelago, a region known locally as Nusantara. Before the establishment of Indonesia as a modern country that also includes Southern Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and the Philippines. The origin of the word silat is uncertain. The Malay term silat is linked to Minangkabau word, silek. Due to Sumatran origin of the Malay language, the Sumatran origin of the term is likely. The word Pencak comes from the Sundanese Penca, in the western part of Java. It is believed as the origin of this martial art, which has been practiced by the Sundanese for centuries, before it was discovered in Central and East Java to be studied.

Although the word silat is widely known throughout much of Southeast Asia, the term pencak silat is used mainly in Indonesia. "Pencak silat" was chosen in 1948 as a unifying term for the Indonesian fighting styles. It was a compound of the two most commonly used words for martial arts in Indonesia. Pencak was the term used by the Sundanese in western part of Java and also in the Central Java and East Java, while silat was used in Sumatra, Malay Peninsula and Borneo where the Malay diaspora also exist in these places. In Minang usage, pencak and silat are seen as being two aspects of the same practice. Pencak is the essence of training, the outward aspect of the art which a casual observer is permitted to witness as performance. Silat is the essence of combat and self-defense, the true fighting application of the techniques which are kept secret from outsiders and not divulged to students until the guru deems them ready. While other definitions exist, all agree that silat cannot exist without pencak, and pencak without silat skills is purposeless.

Some believe that pencak comes from the Sanskrit word pancha meaning five, or from the Chinese term pencha or pungcha which implies parrying or deflecting, and striking or pressing.
Other terms may be used in particular dialects such as silek, penca, mancak, maen po or main-po.

Dutch East Indies newspapers of the colonial era recorded the terms for martial arts under Dutch spellings. These include silat, pencak (spelled in Dutch as "pentjak"), penca ("pentjah"), mancak ("mentjak"), manca ("mentjah"), and pukulan ("poekoelan"). In 1881 a magazine calls mancak a Batak fencing game "with long swords, daggers or wood (mentjah)" These papers described mancak as Malay (Maleische) suggesting that the word originates in Sumatra. These terms were used separately from silat in the Dutch East Indies. The terms pukulan or main pukulan (spelled "maen poekoelan" in Dutch) referred to the fighting systems of Jakarta but was also used generally for the martial arts of other parts of Indonesia such as Sumatra and Lombok. Believed to be a Betawi term, it derives from the words for play (main) and hit (pukulan).