Woods Hole is a census-designated place in the town of Falmouth in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. It lies at the extreme southwestern corner of Cape Cod, near Martha's Vineyard and the Elizabeth Islands. The population was 781 at the 2010 census.

It is the site of several marine science institutions, including Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Marine Biological Laboratory, the Woodwell Climate Research Center, NOAA's Northeast Fisheries Science Center (which started the Woods Hole scientific community in 1871), the Woods Hole Science Aquarium, a USGS coastal and marine geology center, and the home campus of the Sea Education Association.

Woods Hole is also the site of United States Coast Guard Sector Southeastern New England (formerly USCG Group Woods Hole), the Nobska Light lighthouse, and the terminus of the Steamship Authority ferry route between Cape Cod and the island of Martha's Vineyard.

Historically, Woods Hole included one of the few good harbors (along with Hyannis) on the southern side of Cape Cod (i.e. Great Harbor, contained by Penzance Point). The community, originally spelled "Wood's Holl", became a center for whaling, shipping, and fishing, prior to its dominance today by tourism and marine research.

Woods Hole was first used as a fishing ground by the Wampanoag people. In 1602, Bartholomew Gosnold first set foot on Woods Hole, and European settlement began. A Wampanoag Indian deed dated 1679 details the transfer of land to early European settlers. The deed was witnessed by Shearjashub Bourne and Thomas Hinckley.

By the 1820s, Woods Hole had become a significant whaling station, with whale ships being first built by Elijah Swift and Ward Mayhew Parker. The village prospered from whaling, ship outfitting, oil, and whalebone processing until the industry declined in the 1860s. Many building names remain a testament to the town's whaling history, such as the Marine Biological Laboratory's Candle House.

Following the decline of whaling, Woods Hole was the home of the Pacific Guano Company (1863–1889), which produced fertilizer from guano imported from islands in the Pacific Ocean, the Caribbean, and the coast of South Carolina. After the firm went bankrupt in 1889, Long Neck – the peninsula on which their factory was located – was renamed Penzance Point and was developed with shingle-style summer homes for bankers and lawyers from New York and Boston. This marked the beginning of Woods Hole as a seasonal retreat for elite urbanites, a pattern seen in other Cape Cod communities. Notable property owners on Penzance Point at the beginning of the twentieth century included Seward Prosser of New York's Bankers Trust Company; Francis Bartow, a partner in J. P. Morgan and Company; Joseph Lee, a partner in Lee, Higginson & Co.; and Franklin A. Park, an executive of Singer Sewing Machine. Other notable businessmen established homes on Gansett Point, Nobska Point, and at Quissett Harbor, further from the village center.

Woods Hole's development as an epicenter of marine biology and oceanography accelerated in the mid-1800s. Spencer Baird, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, Permanent Secretary of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and naturalist interested in fisheries arrived in Woods Hole in 1871. Upon understanding the need to understand recent declines in New England fisheries, he proposed the establishment of the U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries (to become the National Marine Fisheries Service) and became its first commissioner, without pay. In 1888, the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) was founded, attracting Nobel Prize laureates and pioneering research in biology and medicine. In 1930, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) was established, now the largest independent oceanographic research facility in the U.S., renowned for its contributions to marine science and exploration.