Dniester (Pol. and Russ. Dniestr; anc. Tyras and Danaster), a river of eastern Europe, which has its source in a small lake on the N. E. slope of the Carpathian mountains, S. W. of Lemberg in Galicia, and flows mostly S. E. about 600 m. As far as Old Sam-bor it passes through a broad valley, which afterward expands into an extensive plain on the east, while spurs of the Carpathians here and there skirt the W. banks. At Khotin, where it enters Russian territory, it flows through an open flat country separating the province of Bessarabia from Podolia and Kherson on the east, and then discharges into the Black sea by a shallow liman 19 m. long and 5 broad, between Akerman and Ovidiopol. It receives a number of tributaries in Galicia, the principal of which are the Stry, Strypa, and Sered, and only a few insigniticant ones during its course through Russia. Its current is rapid, and navigation is interrupted between Yampol and Bender by two falls and several whirlpools, and its mouth is encumbered with flats and sand banks.

Wood, grain, and other products are carried down it toward Odessa.