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Parkour (sometimes abbreviated to PK) is a utilitarian discipline based upon the direct, successful, swift traversing of one's surrounding environment via the practical application of techniques, based around the concept of self-preservation. It is a non-competitive, physical discipline of French origin in which participants run along a route, attempting to negotiate obstacles in the most efficient way possible, using only their bodies. Skills such as jumping, climbing, vaulting, rolling, swinging and wall scaling are employed. Parkour can be practiced anywhere, but areas dense with obstacles are preferable and it is most commonly practiced in urban areas.
The term "freerunning" is sometimes incorrectly used interchangeably with "l'art du déplacement". While l'art du déplacement aims to enable the practitioner to move quickly and creatively past obstacles, freerunning is a competition sport, with Urban FreeFlow being credited with this change of definition. Freerunning includes the use of tricking moves such as aerial rotations and spins, but parkour founder David Belle does not consider these part of parkour because the moves are merely for show, are not efficient (except in the case of those that help build momentum), can not assist anyone and do not help the participant to get from place to place. Although Sébastien Foucan is considered a co-founder of parkour, his philosophy later turned out to be different to that of parkour and grew to become known as freerunning (see below).

A practitioner of parkour is called a "traceur", which is most likely derived from Parisian slang "tracer" which means "to hurry" or "to move quickly". In proper French, "traceur" is an adjective qualifying something that leaves a trace or a trail behind it.