The Danube (/ˈdæn.

juːb/ DAN-yoob; known by various names in other languages) is

Europe's second-longest river, after the Volga. It is located in Central and
Eastern Europe.

The Danube was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today flows
through 10 countries. The river runs through the largest number of countries in the
world (the Nile is second with 9 countries). Originating in Germany, the Danube
flows southeast for 2,850 km (1,770 mi), passing through or bordering Austria,
Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova and Ukraine before
draining into the Black Sea. Its drainage basin extends into nine more countries.

The Danube river basin is home to fish species such as pike, zander, huchen, Wels
catfish, burbot and tench. It is also home to a large diversity of carp and
sturgeon, as well as salmon and trout. A few species of euryhaline fish, such as
European seabass, mullet, and eel, inhabit the Danube Delta and the lower portion
of the river.

Since ancient times, the Danube has been a traditional trade route in Europe.
Today, 2,415 km (1,501 mi) of its total length are navigable. The river is also an
important source of hydropower and drinking water.

Danube is an Old European river name derived from a Proto-Indo-European *dānu.

Other European river names from the same root include the Dunaj, Dzvina/Daugava,
Don, Donets, Dnieper, Dniestr, Dysna and Tana/Deatnu. In Rigvedic Sanskrit, dānu
means "fluid, dewdrop" and dānuja means "born from dānu" or "born from dew-drops".
In Avestan, the same word means "river". In the Rigveda, Dānu once appears as the
mother of Vrtra, "a dragon blocking the course of the rivers". The Finnish word for
Danube is Tonava, which is most likely derived from the word for the river in
German, Donau. Its Sámi name Deatnu means "Great River". It is possible that dānu
in Scythian as in Avestan was a generic word for "river": Dnieper and Dniestr, from
Danapris and Danastius, are presumed to continue Scythian *dānu apara "far river"
and *dānu nazdya- "near river", respectively.[2]

The river was known to the ancient Greeks as the Istros (Ἴστρος)[3] a borrowing
from a Daco-Thracian name meaning 'strong, swift', from a root possibly also
encountered in the ancient name of the Dniester (Danaster in Latin, Tiras in Greek)
and akin to Iranic turos 'swift' and Sanskrit iṣiras (इषिरस्) 'swift', from the PIE
*isro-, *sreu 'to flow'.[4] In the Middle Ages, the Greek Tiras was borrowed into
Italian as Tyrlo and into Turkic languages as Tyrla, the latter further borrowed
into Romanian as a regionalism (Turlă).[4]

The Thraco-Phrygian name was Matoas,[5] "the bringer of luck".[6]