In organometallic chemistry, a metal–ligand multiple bond describes the interaction of certain ligands with a metal with a bond order greater than one. Coordination complexes featuring multiply bonded ligands are of both scholarly and practical interest. transition metal carbene complexes catalyze the olefin metathesis reaction. Metal oxo intermediates are pervasive in oxidation catalysis.
As a cautionary note, the classification of a metal–ligand bond as being "multiple" bond order is ambiguous and even arbitrary because bond order is a formalism. Furthermore, the usage of multiple bonding is not uniform. Symmetry arguments suggest that most ligands engage metals via multiple bonds. The term 'metal–ligand multiple bond" is often reserved for ligands of the type  and  (n = 0, 1, 2) and  (n = 0, 1) where R is H or an organic substituent, or pseudohalide. Historically,  and  are not included in this classification, nor are halides.