The Dryopteridales are wood ferns and sword ferns. Their segregation as a discrete order is well-supported by modern genetic evidence.

Dryopteris is from the Greek, drus (drys), "oak", and pteris (pteris), "fern", "fern of the oak wood"

All ferns in Dryopteridales have scaly rhizomes and stipes. They may have either crowned or shortly-creeping rhizomes.

They are widespread in temperate and tropical zones, with a few genera adapted to mountain climates.