A remote control is a component of an electronics device, most commonly a television set, used for operating the device wirelessly from a short line-of-sight distance.

The remote control can be contracted to remote or controller. It is known by many other names as well, such as converter clicker, didge, flipper, the tuner, the changer, or the button. Commonly, remote controls are Consumer IR devices used to issue commands from a distance to televisions or other consumer electronics such as stereo systems, DVD players and dimmers. Remote controls for these devices are usually small wireless handheld objects with an array of buttons for adjusting various settings such as television channel, track number, and volume. In fact, for the majority of modern devices with this kind of control, the remote contains all the function controls while the controlled device itself only has a handful of essential primary controls. Most of these remotes communicate to their respective devices via infrared (IR) signals and a few via radio signals. Some TVs in the 80s also used sound tones. Television IR signals can be mimicked by a universal remote, which is able to emulate the functionality of most major brand television remote controls. They are usually powered by small AAA or AA size batteries.