运动学（kinematics）是力学的一门分支，专门描述物体的运动，即物体在空间中的位置随时间的演进而作的改变，完全不考虑作用力或质量等等影响运动的因素。运动学与力动学、动力学不同。力动学专门研究造成运动或影响运动的各种因素。动力学综合运动学与力动学在一起，研究力学系统由于力的作用随着时间演进而造成的运动。

任何一个物体，像是车子、火箭、星球等等，不论其尺寸大小，假若能够忽略其内部的相对运动，假若其内部的每一部份都是朝相同的方向、以相同的速度移动，那么，可以简易地将此物体视为质点，将此物体的质心的位置当作质点的位置。在运动学里，这种质点运动，不论是直线运动或是曲线运动，都是最基本的研究对象。

Kinematics is the branch of classical mechanics which describes the motion of points (alternatively "particles"), bodies (objects), and systems of bodies without consideration of the masses of those objects nor the forces that may have caused the motion. Kinematics as a field of study is often referred to as the "geometry of motion" and as such may be seen as a branch of mathematics. Kinematics begins with a description of the geometry of the system and the initial conditions of known values of the position, velocity and or acceleration of various points that are a part of the system, then from geometrical arguments it can determine the position, the velocity and the acceleration of any part of the system. The study of the influence of forces acting on masses falls within the purview of kinetics. For further details, see analytical dynamics.