Urdu (historically spelled Ordu), is an Indo-Aryan language of the Indo-Iranian branch, belonging to Indo-European family of languages. It developed under Persian and Arabic, to some lesser degree also under Turkic influence in South Asia during the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal Empire (1526–1858 AD).

Urdu refers to a standardised register of Hindustani termed khaṛībolī, that emerged as a standard dialect. The grammatical description in this article concerns this standard Urdu. In general, the term "Urdu" can encompass dialects of Hindustani other than the standardised versions.

Standard Urdu has approximately the twentieth largest population of native speakers, among all languages. It is the national language of Pakistan as well as one of the 23 official languages of India.

Urdu is often contrasted with Hindi, another standardised form of Hindustani. The main difference between the two is that Standard Urdu is written in Nastaliq calligraphy style of the Perso-Arabic script and draws heavily on Persian and Arabic loanwords, while Standard Hindi is written in Devanāgarī and has inherited significant vocabulary from Sanskrit. Linguists therefore consider Urdu and Hindi to be two standardized forms of the same language.

There are between 60 and 80 million native speakers of standard Urdu (Khari Boli). Overall, besides the more than 160 million who speak Urdu in Pakistan, there is a considerable Indian population who communicate in Urdu every day. According to the SIL ethnologue (1999 data), Hindi/Urdu is the fifth most spoken language in the world. According to Comerie (1998 data), Hindi-Urdu is the second most spoken language in the world, with 330 million native speakers, after Mandarin and possibly English.

Because of Urdu's similarity to Hindi, speakers of the two languages can usually understand one another, if both sides refrain from using specialized vocabulary. Indeed, linguists sometimes count them as being part of the same language diasystem. However, Urdu and Hindi are socio-politically different, and people who self-describe as being speakers of Hindi would question their being counted as native speakers of Urdu, and vice-versa.

In Pakistan, Urdu is spoken and understood by a majority of urban dwellers in such cities as Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi/Islamabad, Abbottabad, Faisalabad, Hyderabad, Multan, Peshawar, Gujranwala, Sialkot, Sukkur and Sargodha. Urdu is used as the official language in all provinces of Pakistan. It is also taught as a compulsory language up to high school in both the English and Urdu medium school systems. This has produced millions of Urdu speakers whose mother tongue is one of the regional languages of Pakistan such as Punjabi, Hindko, Sindhi, Pashto, Gujarati, Kashmiri, Balochi, Siraiki, and Brahui. Urdu is the lingua franca of Pakistan and is absorbing many words from regional languages of Pakistan. The regional languages are also being influenced by Urdu vocabulary. Most of the nearly five million Afghan refugees of different ethnic origins (such as Pakhtun, Tajik, Uzbek, Hazarvi, and Turkmen) who stayed in Pakistan for over twenty-five years have also become fluent in Urdu.

In India, Urdu is spoken in places where there are large Muslim majorities or cities which were bases for Muslim Empires in the past. These include parts of Uttar Pradesh (namely Lucknow), Delhi, Bhopal, Hyderabad, Bangalore, and Mysore. Some Indian schools teach Urdu as a first language and have their own syllabus and exams. Indian madrasahs also teach Arabic as well as Urdu. India has more than 2,900 daily Urdu newspapers. Newspapers such as Daily Salar, Daily Pasban, Siasat Daily, Munsif Daily and Inqilab are published and distributed in Bangalore, Mysore, Hyderabad, and Mumbai.

Outside South Asia, it is spoken by large numbers of migrant South Asian workers in the major urban centers of the Persian Gulf countries and Saudi Arabia. Urdu is also spoken by large numbers of immigrants and their children in the major urban centers of the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Norway and Australia.

Countries with large numbers of native Urdu speakers:

* India (48.1 million [1997])
* Pakistan (10.7 million [1993])
* Bangladesh (650,000)
* United Arab Emirates (600,000)
* United Kingdom (400,000 [1990])
* Saudi Arabia (382,000)
* Nepal (375,000)
* United States (350,000)
* South Africa (170,000 South Asian Muslims, some of which may speak Urdu)
* Oman (90,000)
* Canada (80,895 [2001])
* Bahrain (80,000)
* Mauritius (74,000)
* Qatar (70,000)
* Germany (40,000)
* Norway (26,950 [2005])
* France (20,000)
* Spain (18,000 [2004])
* Sweden (10,000 [2001]
* Thailand
* Afghanistan
* Japan (8,000)
* Fiji
* Guyana
* Suriname
* Australia
* Denmark
* Italy
* New Zealand
* World Total: 60,503,579

Mirza Ghalib (1796-1869), a respected poet of Urdu.

Urdu has been the premier language of poetry in South Asia for two centuries, and has developed a rich tradition in a variety of poetic genres. The 'Ghazal' in Urdu represents the most popular form of subjective poetry, while the 'Nazm' exemplifies the objective kind, often reserved for narrative, descriptive, didactic or satirical purposes. Under the broad head of the Nazm we may also include the classical forms of poems known by specific names such as 'Masnavi' (a long narrative poem in rhyming couplets on any theme: romantic, religious, or didactic), 'Marsia' (an elegy traditionally meant to commemorate the martyrdom of Hazrat Imam Hussain, grandson of Prophet Muhammad, and his comrades of the Karbala fame), or 'Qasida' (a panegyric written in praise of a king or a nobleman), for all these poems have a single presiding subject, logically developed and concluded. However, these poetic species have an old world aura about their subject and style, and are different from the modern Nazm, supposed to have come into vogue in the later part of the nineteenth century.

* Diwan (دیوان)
* Doha (دوہا)
* Geet (گیت)
* Ghazal (غزل), as practiced by many poets in the Arab tradition. Mir, Ghalib, Dagh and Faiz are well-known composers of ghazal.
* Hamd (حمد)
* Kalam (کلام)
* Kulyat (کلیات)
* Marsia (مرثیہ)
* Masnavi (مثنوی)
* Musaddas (مسدس)
* Naat (نعت)
* Nazm (نظم)
* Noha (نوحہ)
* Qaseeda (قصیدہ)
* Qat'ã (قطعہ)
* Rubai (a.k.a. Rubayyat or Rubaiyat) (رباعیات)
* Sehra (سہرا)
* Shehr a'ashob
* Soz (سوز) .

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