Dubăsari (Romanian pronunciation: [dubəˈsarʲ]; Moldovan Cyrillic: Дубэсарь) or Dubossary (Russian: Дубоссары; Yiddish: דובאסאר; Ukrainian: Дубоcсари) is a city in Transnistria, with a population of 23,650.
The origin of the town name is the plural form of the Romanian archaic word dubăsar ("boatman"), a derivative of dubă ("a small wooden boat"), so "Dubăsari" means "boatmen".
In the course of World War II, in 1940, when Bessarabia was occupied by the Soviet Union, it became part of the newly created Moldavian SSR.
In 1951–1954, the Dubăsari dam and a 48 MW hydroelectric power plant Dubossarskaya GES was constructed, and the Dubossary Reservoir was formed.
According to the 2004 Census in Transnistria, the city had 23,650 inhabitants,[5] including 8,954 Moldovans (37.86%), 8,062 Ukrainians (34.09%), 5,891 Russians (24.91%), 153 Belarusians, 104 Bulgarians, 90 Armenians, 49 Poles, 66 Gagauzians, 46 Jews, 39 Germans, 31 Gypsies, and 165 others and non-declared.