A pneumatic tire, including: a lug groove opening at an end of a ground contact surface of a tread portion and extending toward the tire equatorial plane of the ground contact surface to terminate before reaching the tire equatorial plane; a communication groove making a corresponding pair of the lug grooves located on respective sides of the tire equatorial plane communicate with each other; and at least one widthwise groove, formed in a ground contact surface region demarcated between the end of the ground contact surface and the tire equatorial plane and between one pair and another pair adjacent thereto in the tread circumferential direction of the lug grooves and the communication groove communicating therewith, such that the widthwise groove extends in a direction of a tread width and an end thereof on the outer side in the tread width direction terminates within the ground contact surface region.