A shovel is a tool used to excavate, lift, and move bulk materials such as soil, coal, gravel, snow, sand, or ore.

Most shovels are hand tools and consist of a wide blade fixed to a medium length handle. The blade is usually made of steel plate or hard plastic, which is very strong. Shovel handles are usually made of wood (especially certain varieties, such as ash or maple) or fiberglass reinforced plastics (fiberglass).

The shovel blade made of steel plate usually has a folded seam or hem at the back to form a slot for the handle. The fold also generally provides additional rigidity for the blade. The handle is usually riveted in place. The T-piece is usually installed at the end of the handle to help grip and control the position of the shovel designed to move the soil and heavy objects. These designs can be easily mass produced.

The term shovel also applies to large digging machines called power shovels, which have the same purpose - to dig, lift, and move materials. Modern power shovels are derived from steam shovels. Theoretically, loaders and excavators (such as backhoes) perform similar work, but conceptually, they are not classified as shovels.

The shovel has adapted to many different tasks and environments. They can be optimized for a single task or designed as cross or compromise multitask processors. Examples are given under type.