Flores is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, a group of islands in the eastern half of Indonesia. Administratively, it forms the largest island in the East Nusa Tenggara Province. Including Komodo and Rinca islands off its west coast, the land area is 14,731.67 km2, and the population was 1,878,875 in the 2020 Census ; the official estimate as of mid-2023 was 1,962,405. The largest towns are Maumere and Ende. The name Flores is of Portuguese origin, meaning "Flowers".

The Lesser Sunda Islands, also known as Nusa Tenggara Islands, are an archipelago in Maritime Southeast Asia. Most of the Lesser Sunda Islands are located within the Wallacea region, except for the Bali province which is west of the Wallace Line and is within the Sunda Shelf. Together with the Greater Sunda Islands to the west they make up the Sunda Islands. The islands are part of a volcanic arc, the Sunda Arc, formed by subduction along the Sunda Trench in the Java Sea. Slightly over 20 million people live on the islands. Etymologically, Nusa Tenggara means "Southeast Islands" from the words of nusa which means 'island' from Old Javanese language and tenggara means 'southeast'.