The family Gryllidae contains the subfamilies and genera which entomologists now term true crickets.

Having long, whip-like antennae, they belong to the Orthopteran suborder Ensifera, which has been greatly reduced in the last 100 years (e.g. Imms[3]): taxa such as the tree crickets, spider-crickets and their allies, sword-tail crickets, wood or ground crickets and scaly crickets have been moved or elevated to family level.

[a] The type genus is Gryllus and the first use of the family name "Gryllidae" was by Francis Walker.

[4] They have a worldwide distribution (except Antarctica).

[2] The most familiar field crickets (Gryllinae) are characteristically robust brown or black insects;[5] the largest members of the family are the 5 cm (2 in)-long bull crickets (Brachytrupes) which excavate burrows a metre or more deep.