Dielectric-barrier-discharge ionization is an ambient-ionization technique. Since its first description in 2007, it has attracted much attention in such fields as biological analysis, food safety, mass-spectrometry imaging, forensic identification, and reaction monitoring for its advantages, e.g., low energy consumption, solvent-free method, and easy miniaturization. In this review a brief introduction to dielectric barrier discharge is provided, and then a detailed introduction to the dielectric-barrier-discharge-ionization technique is given, including instrumentation, applications, and mechanistic studies. Based on the summary of reported work, possible future uses of this type of ionization source are discussed at the end.