Ninox is a genus of true owls comprising 36 species found in Asia and Australasia.

The genus was introduced by English naturalist Brian Houghton Hodgson in 1837 with the type species as Ninox nipalensis, a junior synonym of Strix lugubris Tickell 1833.

[2][3] The genus contains 37 species:[4] Genomic studies of the extinct laughing owl of New Zealand indicate that it actually belongs in Ninox rather than the monotypic genus Sceloglaux.

[5] The fossil owls "Otus" wintershofensis and "Strix" brevis, both from the Early or Middle Miocene of Wintershof, Germany, are close to this genus; the latter was sometimes explicitly placed in Ninox (Olson 1985), but is now in Intutula.

"Strix" edwardsi from the Late Miocene of La Grive St. Alban, France, might also belong into this group.