There is growing evidence shown that microRNAs (miRNAs) are associated with cancer and can play a role in human cancers as oncogenes or tumor suppressor genes. MicroRNA-214 (miR-214) shows carcinogenesis in various tumor types, but little is known about biological functions of miR-214 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). In this study, we observe that the expression of miR-214 is not only increased in human ESCC tissues, but also remarkably increased in cell lines correlates with LZTS1. In addition, the expression of miR-214 inhibited proliferation of ESCC cells in vitro and inhibit the growth of xenograft tumor in vivo. The results show miR-214 serve as a tumor promoter regulating cells migration, invasion and apoptosis in ESCC. Ferthermore, LZTS1 has been proved to as a functional target for miR-214 to regulate cells poliferation and apoptosis. In summary, these results suggest that miR-214 serves as tumor promoter to promote proliferation, migration, invasion and inhibit apoptosis of ESCC cells by targeting LZTS1 via PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway. The miR-214/LZTS1 pathway provides a new insight into the molecular mechanisms that the occurrence and development of ESCC and it provides a novel therapeutic target for ESCC.