Dy 3+ :Li 3 Ba 2 La 3 (MoO 4 ) 8 crystal has been grown by the top seeded solution growth (TSSG) method from a flux of Li 2 MoO 4 and its morphology, structure and spectral properties were investigated. The crystal crystallizes in the monoclinic system with the space group C2/c, and the unit cell parameters are a=5.3091(5), b=13.0211(11), c=19.3301(15), β=90.891(7)°, V=1336.1(2)Å 3 . Based on the Judd–Ofelt (J–O) theory and the Füchtbauer–Ladenburg (F–L) formula, the main spectroscopic parameters of Dy 3+ :Li 3 Ba 2 La 3 (MoO 4 ) 8 crystal, including the intensity parameters Ω t (t=2, 4, 6), spontaneous emission probabilities, radiative lifetimes and emission cross sections were calculated and analyzed. The room temperature decay curve was analyzed through the frame work of the Inokuti–Hirayama (I–H) model and the results shows that electric dipole–dipole interaction is responsible for the energy transfer processes in Dy 3+ :Li 3 Ba 2 La 3 (MoO 4 ) 8 crystal.