A Stargate is a fictional portal device that allows practical, rapid travel between two distant locations. This article deals with the Stargate devices of the Stargate franchise, which first appear in the 1994 Roland Emmerich film Stargate, and subsequently carried over to the television series Stargate SG-1 and its spin-offs. In these productions the Stargate functions as a plot generator, allowing the main characters to visit alien planets without the need for spaceships or any other fictional technology.

Within the Stargate fictional universe, Stargates are large rings composed of superconductors with nine "chevrons" spaced equally around their circumference. The inner ring, which rotates within the outer, contains thirty-nine unique symbols representing star constellations. Pairs of Stargates function by generating an artificial stable wormhole between them, allowing one-way travel through.

The symbols on the inner ring of the Stargate correspond to constellations and serve to map out coordinates for various destination planets. A typical Stargate measures 6.7 m (22 ft) in diameter, weighs 29,000 kg (64,000 lb), and is made of the fictional heavy mineral "naqahdah". The Stargates were created millions of years ago by an alien race known as the Ancients; their modern history begins when Egyptologist Daniel Jackson deciphers their workings in the Stargate film.

The basic notion of the stargate concept is to have at least two mechanical devices (stargates) in two distant positions, such that, when active, the rings of each become similar to a physical, singular gateway or door-frame between the two locations. The concept was developed by the writers of the feature film Stargate, Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich. Similar devices had been seen in previous fiction, but their complete conception as seen in the film was quite original — though there has been contention as to whether they plagiarized the idea from a previous script submission from a student of Egyptology named Omar Zuhdi who submitted a screenplay to them about ten years before the movie was made.

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