In organic chemistry, a cross-coupling reaction is a reaction where two different fragments are joined. Cross-couplings are a subset of the more general coupling reactions. Often cross-coupling reactions require metal catalysts. One important reaction type is this:
:  (R, R' = organic fragments, usually aryl; M = main group center such as Li or MgX; X = halide)
These reactions are used to form carbon–carbon bonds but also carbon-heteroatom bonds.  Cross-coupling reaction are a subset of coupling reactions.
Richard F. Heck, Ei-ichi Negishi, and Akira Suzuki were awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing palladium-catalyzed coupling reactions.