The Five Boroughs is a colloquialism often used by residents of New York City to unambiguously refer to the city itself, as opposed to any particular borough or to the greater metropolitan area.

By contrast, the phrase "the City" is often taken to imply only the island of Manhattan, and the term New York itself is often taken to refer to the State of New York. The greater metropolitan area, including the suburbs in upstate New York, Long Island, Connecticut, and New Jersey, is sometimes called "the Tri-state region," or simply "the Tri-state."