Faience or faïence is a type of fine tin-glazed pottery. It is a ceramic material with a siliceous body and a brightly colored glaze that contains alkaline salts, minor amounts of lime, and a metallic colorant. Faience may have been developed to simulate highly prized and rare semi-precious blue stones like turquoise. The name faience is simply the French name for Faenza, in the Romagna near Ravenna, Italy, where a painted majolica ware on a clean, opaque pure-white ground, was produced for export as early as the fifteenth century.

The term "faience" is actually a misnomer, as it also refers, more accurately, to the maiolica originating from Faenza and other towns in northern Italy in the late fifteenth century A.D. Maiolica is earthenware known for its bright colors applied on white tin-opacified glaze; Egyptian faience is neither earthenware nor tin-glazed. However, since there has been little agreement on an alternative term, "faience" remains the most commonly used.

Faience first appeared at the end of the fifth millennium B.C. and has occurred in various forms up to the present day. It was used in ancient Egypt to make jewelry, devotional objects, and small objects found in Egypt as early as 4000 BC, as well as in the Ancient Near East, the Indus Valley civilization, and Europe. In English 19th-century usage, "faience" was often used to describe "any earthenware with relief modeling decorated with colored glazes," including much glazed architectural terracotta and Victorian majolica.

Today, faience is still produced in many centers and is again called "faience" in English, though usually still maiolica in Italian.