Ferroptosis is a new form of cell death which is identified in recent years. It is an oxidative cell death induced by small molecules in certain circumstance, which is dependent on iron ion. Ferroptosis is caused by the imbalance of generation and degradation of intracellular reactive oxygen species(ROS). Ferroptosis inducer inhibits glutathione peroxidases(GPX) directly or indirectly through different pathway, resulting in the decrease of cellular antioxidant capacity and accumulation of ROS, which ultimately leads to ferroptosis. In this paper, we summarized the identification, characteristics and mechanism of ferroptosis. Besides, ferroptosis is involved in the development of many diseases, such as Parkinson disease, pancreatic cancer. And ferroptosis activated or inhibited can interfere with the progress of disease. Therefore, we believe that drugs based on ferroptosis will be used for treatment of disease in the future.