Weston-super-Mare (/ ... ˈmɛər/ ... MAIR) is a seaside town and civil parish in the North Somerset unitary district, in the county of Somerset, England. It lies by the Bristol Channel 20 miles (32 km) south-west of Bristol between Worlebury Hill and Bleadon Hill. Its population at the 2021 census was 82,418.

The area around the town has been occupied since the Iron Age. It was still a small village until the 19th century when it developed as a seaside resort. A railway station and two piers were built. In the second half of the 20th century it was connected to the M5 motorway but the number of people holidaying in the town declined and some local industries closed, although the number of day visitors has risen.

Attractions include the Grand Pier, Weston Museum and The Helicopter Museum. Cultural venues include The Playhouse, the Winter Gardens and the Blakehay Theatre.

The Bristol Channel has the second largest tidal range in the world; the low tide mark in Weston Bay is about 1 mile (1.6 km) from the seafront. The beach is sandy but low tide reveals areas of thick mud which are dangerous to walk on. The mouth of the River Axe is at the south end of the beach. To the north of the town is Sand Point which marks the upper limit of the Bristol Channel and the lower limit of the Severn Estuary. In the centre of the town is Ellenborough Park, which is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) due to the range of plant species found there.

Weston comes from the Old English for west, followed by tun - this word has numerous different meanings, although at its root it is most likely to have an original connotation of 'enclosure'. In English place-names, meanings of 'settlement, farmstead, estate', are most likely to be reasonably close to the mark. Super mare is Latin for "upon the sea" and was added to distinguish it from the many other settlements named Weston in the Diocese of Bath and Wells.

In considering the ultimate origin of the name, ‘Weston’, we need to ask exactly what the settlement or estate of that name was considered to be west of – since such ‘cardinal’ place-names usually only arise in relation to another, perhaps ‘superior’ estate to which they were somehow directly related. In this respect, some of the place-names in the wider landscape around Weston may hold a clue, and two especially – Norton and Milton. Norton, on the low-lying levels land immediately to the north of Worle Hill, is, simply, the ‘north tūn’. Norton, which historically was in Kewstoke parish, was certainly in existence by the early 13th century, and can be confidently asserted to be of at least late Anglo-Saxon foundation. Milton is ‘the middle tūn’. It seems at various times to have been split between Weston and Worle parishes. Milton is actually mentioned by name in the Domesday Book (1086), and is certainly of at least late Anglo-Saxon origin. Taking the three places together – the west, the middle, and the north tūnas - , and looking for a bigger, more important place to which these three were subservient, and in direct relation to which they took their names, the most obvious solution is Worle, which by the late 11th century, as shown by the Domesday Book, was a substantial estate. Milton lies directly between Weston and Worle, although rather closer to Worle. So by, say, the year 1000 CE, we can perhaps imagine a large estate centred on Worle, at the eastern end of Worle Hill and with the hill itself, indeed, forming in effect, its backbone, and taking in a swathe of territory to the north and south of the hill (probably including Kewstoke), and all the way to its west tūn at the coast. This would make an economically very viable estate, which would have included a variety of different types of agricultural land, on the hill, on the lower flanks of the hill, and on the low-lying level lands to both north and south of the hill.

Weston is not identified by name in the Domesday Book, but as almost certainly a recognised territorial entity before the Norman Conquest, it would have been liable for tax, even if at only a low level. Most reliable authorities consider that Weston's tax assessment in the Domesday is subsumed, without identification by name, within the assessment for Ashcombe.

Prior to 1348, it was known as Weston-juxta-Mare ("beside the sea"). The name seems to have become changed during the episcopate of Ralph of Shrewsbury, who was Bishop of Bath and Wells from 1329 to 1363, although it is entirely incorrect to suggest that he personally would have been responsible for this. It would most likely have been the idea of a scribe in the scriptorium at Wells, acting on his own initiative. Between the 14th and 17th centuries the 'super Mare' part of the name disappeared and it was just known as Weston, although in 1610 it was recorded as Weston on the More - with 'more' in this context most likely to be understood in the Somerset sense of 'moor' as low lying, damp, semi-marshland.