Theme park is the generic term for a collection of rides and other entertainment attractions assembled for the purpose of entertaining a large group of people. An amusement park is more elaborate than a simple city park or playground, usually providing attractions meant to cater to adults, teenagers, and small children. A theme park is a type of amusement park which has been built around one or more themes, such as an American West theme, or Atlantis. Today, the terms amusement parks and theme parks are often used interchangeably.

Amusement parks evolved in Europe from fairs and pleasure gardens which were created for people's recreation. The oldest amusement park of the world (opened 1583) is Bakken, at Klampenborg, north of Copenhagen, Denmark. In the United States, world's fairs and expositions were another influence on development of the amusement park industry.

Most amusement parks have a fixed location, as compared to traveling funfairs and carnivals. These temporary types of amusement parks, are usually present for a few days or weeks per year, such as funfairs in the United Kingdom, and carnivals (temporarily set up in a vacant lot or parking lots) and fairs (temporarily operated in a fair ground) in the United States. The temporary nature of these fairs helps to convey the feeling that people are in a different place or time.

Often a theme park will have various 'lands' (sections) of the park devoted to telling a particular story. Non-theme amusement park rides will usually have little in terms of theming or additional design elements while in a theme park all the rides go all with the theme of the park, for example Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World.

The modern amusement park

The Blackgang Chine amusement park, established in 1843 by Victorian entrepreneur Alexander Dabell, on the Isle of Wight, UK can be considered the oldest existing theme park in the world. The first amusement park on Coney Island, Sea Lion Park was built around a nautical theme. Today, central Florida and most notably Orlando boasts more theme parks than any other worldwide destination. The northeastern USA region, most notably Pennsylvania, is now a hotbed of traditional surviving amusement parks. In its truest traditional form is Conneaut Lake Park in Conneaut Lake, Pennsylvania. Others include Kennywood in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, Idlewild Park in Ligonier, Pennsylvania, Lakemont Park in Altoona, Pennsylvania, Dorney Park in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and Waldameer Park in Erie, Pennsylvania.