Tamaulipas, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tamaulipas (Spanish: Estado Libre y Soberano de Tamaulipas), is one of the thirty-one states that, with Mexico City, comprise the thirty-two Federal Entities of Mexico.

It is divided into forty-three municipalities and its capital city is Ciudad Victoria.

Located in northeastern Mexico, it is bordered by the states of Veracruz to the southeast,

San Luis Potosí to the southwest, and Nuevo León to the west.

To the north, it has a 3three hundred and seventy-kilometer- (two hundred and thirty mile-) stretch of the U.S.–Mexico border along the state of Texas.

The name Tamaulipas is derived from Tamaholipa, a Huastec term in which the tam- prefix signifies "place (where)".

No scholarly agreement exists on the meaning of holipa, but "high hills" is a common interpretation.

Another explanation of the state name is that it is derived from Ta ma ho'lipam ("place where the Lipan prey").

In addition to the capital city, Ciudad Victoria, the state's largest cities include Reynosa, Matamoros, Nuevo Laredo, Tampico, and Mante.