In chemistry, a nitride is an inorganic compound of nitrogen. The "nitride" anion, N^3- ion, is very elusive but compounds of nitride are numerous, although rarely naturally occurring. Some nitrides have a find applications,such as wear-resistant coatings (e.g., titanium nitride, TiN), hard ceramic materials (e.g., silicon nitride, Si₃N₄), and semiconductors (e.g., gallium nitride, GaN). The development of GaN-based light emitting diodes was recognized by the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics. Metal nitrido complexes are also common.

Synthesis of inorganic metal nitrides is challenging because nitrogen gas (N2) is not very reactive at low temperatures, but it becomes more reactive at higher temperatures. Therefore, a balance must be achieved between the low reactivity of nitrogen gas at low temperatures and the entropy driven formation of N₂ at high temperatures.However, synthetic methods for nitrides are growing more sophisticated and the materials are of increasing technological relevance.