The Moldavian dialect (Graiul moldovean or Graiul moldovenesc in Romanian) is one of several dialects of the Romanian language (Daco-Romanian). It is spoken across the approximate area of the historical region of Moldavia, now split between the Republic of Moldova, Romania, and Ukraine. The Moldavian dialect is one of the main regional varieties of the Daco-Romanian grouping of dialects, with consistent phonetic, lexical, and syntactic features that distinguish it from other dialects, including the Wallachian variety upon which the modern Romanian literary standard is based. Though largely mutually intelligible with other Romanian dialects nowadays, Moldavian retains both archaic elements and regional innovations that may or may not be shared with other dialects.

The Moldavian dialect can be considered a vernacular or 'speech' when contrasted with a standardized variety of the language existing within a particular social and economic context. In this case, Moldavian has increasingly approached such a classification due to dialect levelling, since the promotion of the Wallachian dialect, among others, as a basis for the standard variety of formal and literary Romanian, leading to a reduction of urban Moldavian varieties to primarily informal forms, and, for some speakers, to the level of merely an accent. However, Moldavian has historically evolved to the point of being a dialect, hence its present classification within currently complex sociolinguistic dynamics. This dialect has not been consistently written, except in specific historical and artistic contexts. In this instance, the Romanian orthography is generally used, or the Moldovan Cyrillic alphabet.

The Moldavian dialect is the representative of the northern grouping of Daco-Romanian dialects and has influenced the Romanian spoken over large areas of Transylvania. The name of the dialect reflects the historical region of Moldavia, which encompasses regions including and beyond the Republic of Moldova.

While the Moldavian dialect had been considered mostly as equal as the other dialects for much of its history, the rise of a standardized literary Romanian, based on the Wallachian (Bucharest) variety with Latin neologisms, first promoted with the rise of Romanian nationalism in the 19th century and later institutionalized, gradually reduced the prestige of regional varieties like Moldavian in formal and public contexts. Writers from the Moldavian region since the 16th century had been heavily influenced by the liturgical language of the time, which was Church Slavonic, and a mix of Greek and Latin as well as regional vernaculars or dialects. Standardization by the 20th century led to fluctuating but increasing levels of code-switching, particularly in urban centers such as Chișinău, where speakers often shift between the regional dialect and the standard language depending on formality and perceived social correctness. Over time, this has contributed to the perception of Moldavian as an informal 'speech' or accent, especially among younger and urban populations. Nonetheless, the dialect preserves a certain structure which is internally consistent, and functions like any other dialect that is mostly based in a rural environment. Newer or more scientific vocabulary usually keeps the original standard Romanian pronunciation, the process functioning in a similar way to 19th century learned borrowings from Latin.

The Moldavian dialect is not synonymous with the Moldovan language, which had once been an attempt to standardize the Moldavian dialect, though by the late 80s could be considered simply a renaming of the standard Romanian language, also found in Bucharest. The dialect itself has never been successfully standardized in its existence and has almost never been found in academic or administrative settings.

The Moldavian and the Wallachian dialects are the only two that have been consistently identified and recognized by linguists. They are clearly distinct in dialect classifications made by Heimann Tiktin, Mozes Gaster, Gustav Weigand, Sextil Pușcariu, Sever Pop, Emil Petrovici, Romulus Todoran, Ion Coteanu, Alexandru Philippide, Iorgu Iordan, Emanuel Vasiliu, and others, whereas the other dialects have been considerably more controversial and difficult to classify due to unclear boundaries and shifting social contexts.

The border between Romania and the Republic of Moldova does not correspond to any significant isoglosses to justify a dialectal division; phonology and morphology (which commonly define dialectal classifications) are identical across the border, whereas lexical differences are minimal. In fact, larger differences in phonology can be found between the northern and southern regions of the Republic of Moldova.

The Moldavian dialect is spoken in the northeastern part of Romania, the Republic of Moldova, and small areas of Ukraine. It is the only Romance variety spoken east of the Eastern Carpathians. In detail, its distribution area covers the following administrative or historical regions: