Abstarct: Variable neighborhood search (VNS) is a mextaheuristic, or frxamework for building heuristics, aimed at solving combinatorial and global optimization problems. Its basic idea is systematic change of neighborhood combined with a local search. Since its inception, VNS has undergone many developments and been applied in numerous fields. We review the basic rules of VNS and of its main extensions. Moreover, some of the most successful applications are briefly summarized.