Background: Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) linc01116 was found to be abnormally expressed in many malignant tumor tissues and involved in cancer progression, but its expression and role in glioma tissue is still unclear. This study was designed to investigate the expression of linc01116 in glioma tissues and the role of linc01116 in glioma cell migration and invasion. Methods: Linc01116 and miR-31 expression was measured in 135 cases of human glioma tissues and normal brain tissues using Real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR). The function of linc01116 in glioma cells was determined by Transwell invasion assays and nude mice metastasis assay. Luciferase reporter system was used to confirm the connection between linc01116 and miR-31, or miR-31 and radixin. Results: Linc01116 is highly expressed in glioma tissue and cells, along with low expression of miR-31, and there was a negative correlation between the expression of linc01116 and miR-31 in glioma tissue. In addition, the expression of linc01116 in glioma patients with metastasis was significantly higher than that in patients without metastasis, while miR-31 was significantly lower. In vitro and in vivo studies shown that linc01116 promoted invasion and migration of glioma cells. The luciferase gene reporter system had confirmed that linc01116 targeted miR-31 and miR-31 targeted radixin in U251 cells. Moreover, radixin was downregulated and decreased E-cadherin protein expression, but increased MMP-9 and vimentin protein expression in U251 cells. Conclusion: LncRNA linc01116 is highly expressed in glioma tissues, and it promotes glioma cell migration and invasion by modulation of radixin targeted by miR-31.