LINC00473 is an intergenic long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) and has been suggested to be dysregulated in several human cancers. However, the clinical value and biological function of LINC00473 in gastric cancer (GC) was still unknown. In our results, LINC00473 expression was increased in GC tissue samples and GC cell lines compared with paired adjacent normal stomach tissue samples and normal gastric epithelial cell line, respectively. High-expression of LINC00473 was correlated with poor histological type, advanced clinical stage, more lymph node metastasis and present distant metastasis. The results of Kaplan-Meier analysis and TCGA database similarly suggested that GC patients with LINC00473 high-expression had poorer prognosis than GC patients with LINC00473 low-expression. Furthermore, multivariate analysis showed that LINC00473 high-expression served as independent unfavorable prognostic factor for overall survival in GC patients. The study in vitro indicated that silencing of LINC00473 had no effect on GC cell viability, but inhibited GC cell migration and invasion through modulating MMP2 and MMP9 expression. In conclusion, LINC00473 is associated with the malignant status and prognosis in GC cases, and functions as an oncogenic lncRNA to regulate GC cell migration and invasion.