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Major river in Switzerland and France

The Rhône (/r//əʊ//n/ ROHN, ) is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and southeastern France before discharging into the Mediterranean Sea. At Arles, near its mouth, the river divides into the Great Rhône and the Little Rhône (le Petit Rhône). The resulting delta forms the Camargue region. The river's source is the Rhône Glacier, at the east edge of the Swiss canton of Valais. The glacier is part of the Saint Gotthard Massif, which gives rise to three other major rivers: the Reuss, Rhine and Ticino. The Rhône is, with the Po and Nile, one of the three Mediterranean rivers with the largest water discharge.

The name Rhône continues the Latin Rhodanus name (Greek Ῥοδανός ALA LC) in Greco Roman geography. The Gaulish name of the river was Rodonos or Rotonos (from a PIE root *ret "to run, roll" frequently found in river names). Names in other languages include Rhone ; ; ; ; ; and
The Greco Roman as well as the reconstructed Gaulish name is masculine, as is French le Rhône. This form survives in the Spanish/Portuguese and Italian namesakes, el/o Ródano and il Rodano, respectively. German has adopted the French name but given it the feminine gender, die Rhone. The original German adoption of the Latin name was also masculine, der Rotten; it survives only in the Upper Valais (dialectal Rottu). In French, the adjective derived from the river is rhodanien, as in le sillon rhodanien (literally "the furrow of the Rhône"), which is the name of the long, straight Saône and Rhône river valleys, a deep cleft running due south to the Mediterranean and separating the Alps from the Massif Central.

Before railroads and highways were developed, the Rhône was an important inland trade and transportation route, connecting the cities of Arles, Avignon, Valence, Vienne and Lyon to the Mediterranean ports of Fos sur Mer, Marseille and Sète. Travelling down the Rhône by barge would take three weeks. By motorized vessel, the trip now takes only three days. The Rhône is classified as a Class V waterway for the section from the mouth of the Saône at Lyon to the sea at Port Saint Louis du Rhône. Upstream from Lyon, a section of the Rhône was made navigable for small ships up to Seyssel. as of 2017, the part between Lyon and Sault Brénaz is closed for navigation. The Saône, which is also canalized, connects the Rhône ports to the cities of Villefranche sur Saône, Mâcon and Chalon sur Saône. Smaller vessels (up to CEMT class I) can travel further northwest, north and northeast via the Centre Loire Briare and Loing Canals to the Seine, via the Canal de la Marne à la Saône (recently often called the "Canal entre Champagne et Bourgogne") to the Marne, via the Canal des Vosges (formerly called the "Canal de l'Est – Branche Sud") to the Moselle and via the Canal du Rhône au Rhin to the Rhine. The Rhône is infamous for its strong current when the river carries large quantities of water: current speeds up to are sometimes reached, particularly in the stretch below the last lock at Vallabrègues and in the relatively narrow first diversion canal south of Lyon. The 12 locks are operated daily from 5:00 a. m. until 9:00 p. m. All operation is centrally controlled from one control centre at Châteauneuf. Commercial barges may navigate during the night hours by authorisation.

The Rhône has been an important highway since the times of the Greeks and Romans. It was the main trade route from the Mediterranean to east central Gaul. As such, it helped convey Greek cultural influences to the western Hallstatt and the later La Tène cultures. Trade on the upper river used barques du Rhône, sailing barges, , with a capacity. As many as 50 to 80 horses were employed to haul trains of five to seven craft upstream. Goods would be transshipped at Arles into sailing barges called allèges d'Arles for the final run down to the Mediterranean. The first experimental steam boat was built at Lyon by Jouffroy d'Abbans in 1783. Regular services were not started until 1829 and they continued until 1952. Steam passenger vessels long made up to and could do the downstream run from Lyon to Arles in a day. Cargo was hauled in bateau anguilles, boats with paddle wheels amidships, and bateaux crabes, a huge toothed "claw"wheel across to grip the river bed in the shallows to supplement the paddle wheels. In the 20th century, powerful motor barges propelled by diesel engines were introduced, carrying
In 1933, the Compagnie Nationale du Rhône (CNR) was established to improve navigation and generate electricity, also to develop irrigated agriculture and to protect the riverside towns and land from flooding. Some progress was made in deepening the navigation channel and constructing scouring walls, but World War II brought such work to a halt. In 1942, following the collapse of Vichy France, Italian military forces occupied southeastern France up to the eastern banks of the Rhône, as part of the Italian Fascist regime's expansionist agenda.

In 1948, the French government started construction of a series of dams and diversion canals, with a navigation lock beside the hydroelectric power plant on each of these canals. The locks were up to deep. After building the Génissiat dam on the Upper Rhône (with no lock) in 1948, designed to meet the electricity needs of Paris, twelve hydroelectric plants and locks were built between 1964 and 1980. With a total head of , they produce 13 GWh of electricity annually, or 16% of the country's total hydroelectric production (20% if the Upper Rhône schemes are added). There have been significant benefits for agriculture throughout the Rhône valley. With the Lower Rhône project completed, CNR turned its attention to the Haut Rhône (Upper Rhône), and built four hydropower dams in the 1980s: Sault Brénaz, Brégnier Cordon, Belley Brens and Chautagne. It also drew up plans for the high capacity Rhine Rhône Waterway, along the route of the existing Canal du Rhône au Rhin, but this project was abandoned in 1997. In the period from 2005 to 2010, navigation locks of small barge dimensions (40 by 6 m) were built to bypass the last two, forming a navigable waterway network with Lake Bourget, through the Canal de Savières.