A number of transition-metal complexes have been reported to exhibit rich luminescence, usually originating from phosphorescence. Such luminescence properties of the triplet excited state with a large Stoke's shift, long lifetime, high luminescence quantum yield as well as lower excitation energy, are envisaged to serve as an ideal candidate in the area of potential applications for chemosensors, dye-sensitized solar cells, flat panel displays, optics, new materials and biological sciences. Organic alkynes (poly-ynes), with extended or conjugatedπ-systems and rigid structure with linear geometry, have become a significant research area due to their novel electronic and physical properties and their potential applications in nanotechnology. Owing to the presence of unsaturated sp-hybridized carbon atoms, the alkynyl unit can serve as a versatile building block in the construction of alkynyl transition-metal complexes, not only throughσ-bonding but also viaπ-bonding interactions. By incorporation of linear alkynyl groups into luminescent transition-metal complexes, the alkynyl moiety with goodσ-donor,π-donor andπ-acceptor abilities is envisaged to tune or perturb the emission behaviors, including emission energy (color), intensity and lifetime by its role as an auxiliary ligand as well as to govern the emission origin from its direct involvement. This review summarizes recent efforts on the synthesis of luminescent rod-like alkynyl complexes with different classes of transition metals and details the effects of the introduction of alkynyl groups on the luminescence properties of the complexes.