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Abstract This overview examines discourse studies as a fundamental area within applied linguistics, exploring how language shapes and is shaped by social life, power relations, and ideological systems. It does so acknowledging the field's internal diversity across theoretical traditions, geographic contexts, and analytical practices. The entry traces the conceptual diversity of “discourse”—from language in use to systemic frameworks governing meaning production—and outlines the field's interdisciplinary character. Key theoretical assumptions are discussed, including discourse as dialogical, contextual, and inseparable from power and identity construction. Major research areas are surveyed, encompassing power and hegemony, identity formation, gender and racism, institutional discourses (medical, educational, political, media), and glottopolitics. The entry reviews methodological approaches ranging from qualitative and ethnographic methods to experimental designs, rhetorical analysis, and narrative inquiry. Current challenges are addressed, particularly decolonial perspectives that question Western epistemological dominance and the implications of artificial intelligence for discourse research.