Breda is a city and municipality in the southern part of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Brabant. The name derived from brede Aa and refers to the confluence of the rivers Mark and Aa. Breda has 185,072 inhabitants on 13 September 2022 and is part of the Brabantse Stedenrij; it is the ninth largest city/municipality in the country, and the third largest in North Brabant after Eindhoven and Tilburg. It is equidistant between Rotterdam and Antwerp.

Brabantse Stedenrij is a term used in Dutch urban planning to designate the polycentric city region in the province of North Brabant, Netherlands. It's erroneously translated sometimes into English as "Brabantine City Row"; a term not attested in English outside Wikipedia until LinkedIn adopted it in August 2020. Its population is about 2 million. The main cities are 's-Hertogenbosch, Breda, Eindhoven, Helmond and Tilburg. Other municipalities of the area are Bergen op Zoom, Oss and Roosendaal. The metropolitan region also includes other large towns such as Boxtel, Etten-Leur, Oosterhout, Uden, Veghel, Veldhoven and Waalwijk.