马戏，一般指包括有特技、受训过的动物、小丑、魔术及其他杂技的表演，以娱乐观众为目的。英文里，马戏团叫“Circus”，源自拉丁文「圆圈」，指圆形露天竞技场。

桓宽《盐铁论》有「马戏斗虎」的记载。唐代马戏表演「透剑门伎」，表演者乘小马，奔腾跳跃，飘忽而过。1871年玲玲马戏团（Ringling Bros.and Barnum & Bailey）成立，1919年成立莫斯科大马戏团，拥有超过4,000名表演者及1,000名工作人员，1956年到美国首演。加上1977年成立的大苹果马戏团（Big Apple Circus），号称世界三大马戏团。中国齐齐哈尔马戏团始建于1952年，是中国著名的马戏表演团体。1982年加拿大魁北克人创建太阳马戏团（Cirque Du Soleil），经过二十余年的经营，成为世界规模最大的马戏团。2003年太阳马戏团合作创始人之一诺曼·拉杜勒(Normand Latourelle) 揉合马术与表演艺术、多媒体投映、及奇幻特技，创作了Cavalia。

A circus is a company of performers that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, unicyclists and other object manipulation and stunt-oriented artists. The term 'circus' also describes the performance which has followed various formats through its 250-year modern history. Philip Astley is credited with being the 'father' of the modern circus when he opened the first circus in 1768 in England. Early circuses were almost exclusively demonstrations of equestrian skills with a few other types of acts to link the horsemanship performances. Performances developed significantly through the next fifty years, with large scale theatrical battle reenactments becoming a significant feature. The 'traditional' format, whereby a ringmaster introduces a varied selection of acts that mostly perform choreographed acts to traditional music, developed in the latter part of 19th century and continued almost universally to be the main style of circus up until the 1970s.