Gurun is a mukim in Kuala Muda District, Kedah, Malaysia. "Gurun" in English means desert, however the town does not resemble in the slightest the meaning of its English translation. Rather, it derived its name from the word "gerun", which means terrify or "kurun" meaning elephant in the Siamese dialect. These words are associated with an incident during the reign of King Ekataat’s grandsons, Sultan Jaafar Mad Azam Syah, Sultan of the Islamic State of Ayutthia, who was killed in 1876 by the invading Thai armies when they crushed his body using an elephant. This incident took place behind the current Gurun Police Station.

Gurun is well known for its corn stalls. Rows of these stalls stand along the federal trunk road from the town of Gurun to the town of Guar Chempedak. Gurun is also known for the starting point of Wan Mat Saman Canal, the longest canal in Malaysia with approximately 36 km that stretch out until Alor Setar town, where it connects Gurun River to Kedah River. The construction of the canal started on 13 August 1885 and was completed on 12 July 1896 and the soil that was dig out to create the canal formed "batas ban", which formed the foundation for the current federal trunk road to the state capital Alor Setar.

Until the 1990s, Gurun is well known for its vegetables products and was recognised as the main vegetables and corn producer for Kedah. Apart from that, several rubber estates such Havard Estate and Jentayu Estate in the main commodity players for Kedah. Gurun also has its own iron ore mines located to the south of Gurun town, a place known as Bukit Merah.

Gurun was designated as the industrial area for heavy industry in the 1980s by the government. Initially, the Perwaja Beam and Rolling Mill was set up. Then the landscape of Gurun slowly changed. Gurun is now the home of major factories, such as Naza, Modenas, Perwaja Steel, & Petronas Fertilizer Kedah.

East of Gurun, there is the HVDC static inverter plant of HVDC Thailand-Malaysia. The most remarkable feature of this facility is, that the static inverter hall of this facility looks like a Chinese building.