Stilbenes and their derivatives, stilbenoids, form a multidisciplinary field that combines many important branches of chemistry, biology, and physics. The number of publications on stilbenes available on the Internet has reached approximately 32,000. Classical and modern synthetic organic chemistry (more than 6300 articles) provide a whole arsenal of stilbenes of different structures. The unique features of this class of compounds, including a combinatihon of fluorescence, phosphorescence, photochrome, photochemical, and photophysical properties, are paving the way for numerous fundamental research and practical applications. Specifically, (
1
) stilbenes are used as dyes, brighteners, whiteners of paper and textile, and photobleachers; (
2
) stilbenes and its combination with polymers and inorganic materials have been made as a basis for numerous optical and measuring instruments, devices, and apparatuses for dye lasers, organic solid lasers, and scintillators, phosphorus, neutron, and radiation detectors, electrophotographic photoconductor and image‐forming apparatus, and photochromic, light‐transmitting, dichroic, electroluminescent nonlinear optic, and organic–inorganic hybrid multichromophoric optical limiting materials; (
3
) stilbenoids are naturally present in plants and have been used as drugs and antitumor agents; and (
4
) stilbene derivatives have been used as molecular probes and labels for investigation of structure and dynamic properties of proteins and biomembranes. This article concisely covers the main aspects of stilbenes synthesis, chemical activity, and application.