Boston is the capital of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. It is the largest city in New England. Founded in 1630, Boston is one of the oldest and most culturally significant cities in the United States. Its economy is based on higher education, research, health care, finance, and technology, principally biotechnology.

Boston has many nicknames. The City on a Hill came from original Massachusetts Bay Colony's governor John Winthrop's goal to create the biblical "City on a Hill." It also refers to the original three hills of Boston. Beantown refers to early Bostonian tradition of making baked beans with imported molasses. The Hub is a shortened form of a phrase recorded by writer Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Hub of the Solar System.[2] William Tudor, co-founder of the North American Review, christened the city The Athens of America for its great cultural and intellectual influence. Boston is sometimes called the Puritan City because its founders were Puritans, and also called The Cradle of Liberty for its role in instigating the American Revolution. In the nineteenth century, it was also known as the "City of Notions."[3] Citizens of Boston are called Bostonians.

The city lies at the center of the Boston-Worcester-Manchester CSA (Combined Statistical Area), the seventh largest in the United States. The area encompasses parts of the states of New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. The city also lies at the center of Greater Boston, which also includes the cities of Cambridge, Quincy, and Newton, the town of Brookline, and many suburban communities farther from Boston.