In English, this city's name translates into "Frankfurt on the Main" (pronounced like "mine"). A part of early Franconia, the inhabitants were the early Franks. The city is located on an ancient ford on the river Main, which is a shallow crossing. The German word is "Furt". Thus the city's name receives its legacy as being the "ford of the Franks".

Situated on the Main River, Frankfurt is the financial and transportation centre of Germany and the largest financial centre in continental Europe. It is seat of the European Central Bank, the German Federal Bank, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the Frankfurt Trade Fair, as well as several large commercial banks. Frankfurt Airport is one of the world's busiest international airports, Frankfurt Central Station is one of the largest terminal stations in Europe, and the Frankfurter Kreuz (Autobahn interchange) is the most heavily used interchange in continental Europe. Frankfurt is the only German city listed as one of ten Alpha world cities. Frankfurt lies in the former American Occupation Zone of Germany, and it was formerly the headquarters city of the U.S. Army in Germany, but what is left of that organization has moved out of Frankfurt to some more remote location.

Among English speakers the city is commonly known simply as "Frankfurt", though Germans occasionally call it by its full name when it is necessary to distinguish it from the other (significantly smaller) "Frankfurt" in the state of Brandenburg, Frankfurt (Oder).

The three pillars of Frankfurt's economy are finance, transport, and trade fairs. Frankfurt has been Germany's financial centre for centuries, and it is the home of a number of major banks and brokerages. The Frankfurt Stock Exchange is by far Germany's largest, and is one of the world's most important. Frankfurt is also the seat of the European Central Bank which sets monetary policy for the Eurozone economy, and of the German Federal Bank. Over 300 national and international banks are represented including the headquarters of the major German banks.

Frankfurt has an excellent transportation infrastructure, and the Frankfurt International Airport is a major European aviation hub. Its central location at the heart of Europe and its excellent accessibility by air, rail and road make Frankfurt Airport City especially attractive.

In addition, many large trade fairs are held in Frankfurt each year, notably the Internationale Automobil-Ausstellung, the world's largest motor show, and the Frankfurter Buchmesse, the world's largest book fair,and Musikmesse world's largest music fair.

Frankfurt is also home to many cultural and educational institutions including the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, many museums, and two major botanical gardens, the Palmengarten and the Botanischer Garten der Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main.

Frankfurt is one of only three cities in the European Union that have a significant number of skyscrapers. With 10 skyscrapers (i.e. buildings taller than 150 m (492 ft)) in early 2009, Frankfurt is second behind Paris with 14 skyscrapers, and on par with London which also has 10 skyscrapers. The city of Frankfurt contains the two tallest skyscrapers in the European Union, the Commerzbank Tower and Messeturm, which rank third and fourth on the continent after the Naberezhnaya Tower and the Triumph-Palace in Moscow.

As a major center of international commerce, Frankfurt is a multicultural city, home to people of 180 nationalities. In addition to the ethnic German majority, the city contain sizeable immigrant populations from Turkey, Albania, Croatia, Serbia, the Republic of Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, India, Pakistan, Italy, Spain, North African countries, Iran, and Lebanon. The Frankfurt area is also home to the second-largest Korean community in Europe, and to Germany's largest Sri Lankan Tamil community.

For a long time Frankfurt was a Protestant-dominated city. However, during the 19th century an increasing number of Catholics moved to the city. Today a small majority of its citizens are Catholic. According to the Central Council of Jews in Germany, there are 7,300 Jews affiliated with Judaism in Frankfurt, giving it the second largest Jewish community (behind Berlin) in Germany.

The city is located on both sides of the River Main in the south-west part of Germany. The southern part of the city contains the Frankfurt City Forest (Frankfurter Stadtwald), Germany's largest forest within a city. The centre of Frankfurt is located on the north side of the river.