Hausa (هَوُسَ , Yaren Hausa – language of the Hausa [people]) is the Chadic language with the largest number of speakers, spoken as a first language by about 25 million people, and as a second language by about 18 million more, an approximate total of 43 million people. Hausa is one of Africa's largest spoken languages after Arabic, French, English and Swahili.

Hausa belongs to the West Chadic languages subgroup of the Chadic languages group, which in turn is part of the Afro-Asiatic language family.

Along with the Chadic language branch, the Afro-Asiatic language family also includes 4 other branches:

Native speakers of Hausa, the Hausa people are mostly to be found in the African country of Niger and in the north of Nigeria, but the language is used as a trade language across a much larger swathe of West Africa (Benin, Ghana, Cameroon, Togo, Cote d'Ivoire etc.), Central Africa and western Sudan (Chad, Central African Republic, Sudan, Equatorial Guinea), particularly amongst Muslims. Radio stations like BBC, Radio France Internationale, China Radio International, Voice of Russia, Voice of America, Deutsche Welle, and IRIB broadcast in Hausa. It is taught at universities in Africa and around the world. The language is the most commonly spoken language in Nigeria, but unlike Yoruba and Igbo, it is not so widely spoken outside Nigeria.