Sir Charles Lyell, 1st Baronet, Kt FRS (14 November 1797 – 22 February 1875) is a British lawyer and the foremost geologist of his day.

He is best known as the author of Principles of Geology, which popularizes James Hutton's concepts of uniformitarianism – the idea that the earth was shaped by the same processes still in operation today.

Lyell is a close and influential friend of Charles Darwin.