We consider the role of Lorentz symmetry in noncommutative field theory. We
find that a Lorentz-violating standard-model extension involving ordinary
fields is general enough to include any realisitc noncommutative field theory
as a subset. This leads to various theoretical consequences, as well as bounds
from existing experiments at the level of (10 TeV)$^{-2}$ on the scale of the
noncommutativity parameter.