tsar

English

Alternative forms

• czar, tzar, csar

Etymology

Borrowing from Russian царь (carʹ), from Old East Slavic цьсарь (cĭsarĭ), from Old Church Slavonic цѣсарь (cěsarĭ), from Gothic 𐌺𐌰𐌹𐍃𐌰𐍂 (kaisar), from Byzantine Greek Καῖσαρ (Kaîsar), ultimately from Latin Caesar.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /(t)sɑː/, /zɑː/
• (US) IPA^(key): /zɑɹ/, /(t)sɑɹ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)
• Homophone: Saar

Noun

tsar (plural tsars)

1. (historical) An emperor of Russia (1547 to 1917) and of some South Slavic kingdoms.
2. (figuratively) A person with great power; an autocrat.
3. (informal, politics, US) An appointed official tasked to regulate or oversee a specific area.

   drug czar

Usage notes

• (emperor of Russia): Officially, emperors after 1721 were styled imperator (импера́тор (imperátor)) rather than tsar (царь (carʹ)), but the latter term is still commonly applied to them.
• The term sometimes refers to other emperors, besides those of Russia.
• The spelling czar is most common one in the US, especially in the figurative and informal senses. Scholarly literature prefers tsar.

Derived terms

terms derived from tsar

• tsardom, czardom
• tsarian
• tsarina, czarina
• tsarism, czarism

• tsarist, czarist
• czarocracy
• czarocrat
• czarocratic

Related terms

terms related to tsar

• csar
• czar
• tsarina
• tsaritsa

• tsarevna
• tsarevich
• tzar

Translations

an emperor

• Albanian: car (sq) m
• Arabic: تْسَار‏‎ m (tsār), قَيْصَر‏‎ m (qayṣar)
• Armenian: ցար (hy) (cʿar)
• Azeri: çar (az)
• Belarusian: цар m (car)
• Bengali: জার (jar)
• Bulgarian: цар (bg) m (car)
• Catalan: tsar m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 沙皇 (zh) (shāhuáng)

• Crimean Tatar: çar
• Czech: car (cs) m
• Danish: zar (da) c
• Dutch: tsaar (nl)
• Esperanto: caro
• Estonian: tsaar (et)
• Faroese: sarur m
• Finnish: tsaari (fi)
• French: tsar (fr) m, tzar (fr) m
• Gagauz: ţar
• Georgian: ცარი (cari)
• German: Zar (de)
• Greek: τσάρος (el) m (tsáros)
• Hebrew: צָאר‏‎ m (tsar)
• Hindi: ज़ार m (zār), त्सार m (tsār)
• Hungarian: cár (hu)
• Ingrian: tsaari
• Irish: sár m
• Italian: zar (it) m
• Japanese: ツァーリ (tsāri), ツァー (tsā), ツァール (tsāru)
• Kazakh: патша (patşa), царь (carʹ)
• Khmer: ត្សារ (tsar)
• Korean: 차르 (ko) (chareu)
• Kyrgyz: падыша (ky) (padışa), царь (tsarʹ)
• Latvian: cars m

• Lithuanian: caras (lt)
• Macedonian: цар m (car)
• Malay: czar
• Marathi: त्सार m (tsār), जार (jār)
• Northern Sami: cára
• Old Church Slavonic:

  Cyrillic: цѣсарь m (cěsarĭ), царь m (carĭ)

• Old East Slavic: цьсарь m (cĭsarĭ), царь m (carĭ)
• Persian: تزار‏‎ (fa) (tezâr), تسار‏‎ (tesâr)
• Polish: car (pl) m
• Portuguese: tsar (pt) m, czar (pt) m, tzar m
• Romanian: țar (ro) m
• Russian: царь (ru) m (carʹ), импера́тор (ru) m (imperátor)
• Rusyn: царь m (carʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ца̏р m

  Roman: cȁr (sh) m

• Skolt Sami: caarr
• Slovak: cár (sk) m
• Slovene: cár m
• Spanish: zar (es) m
• Swahili: czar
• Swedish: tsar (sv) c
• Tagalog: sar
• Tajik: подшоҳ (podšoh), шоҳ (tg) (šoh), тсар (tsar)
• Tatar: патша (tt) (patşa)
• Thai: ซาร์ (saa)
• Turkish: çar (tr)
• Turkmen: patyşa, şa, tsar
• Ukrainian: цар (uk) m (car)
• Urdu: زار‏‎ m (zār), تسار‏‎ m (tsār)
• Uyghur: چار‏‎ (char)
• Uzbek: podsho (uz), shoh (uz), tsar
• Vietnamese: sa hoàng, Nga hoàng
• Volapük: (♂♀) zar (vo), (♂) hizar
• Yiddish: צאַר‏‎ m (tsar)

a person with great power; an autocrat

• Esperanto: caro
• Portuguese: tsar (pt) m

• Russian: царь (ru) m (carʹ), коро́ль (ru) m (korólʹ)

an appointed official tasked to regulate or oversee a specific area

Anagrams

• RATs, Star, TSRA, arts, arts., rats, sart, star, tars

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Catalan

Noun

tsar m (plural tsars)

1. tsar

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French

Alternative forms

• czar
• tzar

Etymology

From Russian царь (carʹ), from Old East Slavic цьсарь (cĭsarĭ), from Old Church Slavonic цѣсарь (cěsarĭ) believed to come from Latin Caesar.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tsaʁ/

Noun

tsar m (plural tsars)

1. czar (Russian nobility)

Related terms

• tsariste
• tsarisme
• tsarine

Anagrams

• arts, rats, star

Further reading

• “tsar” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

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Galician

Noun

tsar m (plural tsares)

1. tsar

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Portuguese

Noun

tsar m (plural tsares, feminine tsarina, feminine plural tsarinas)

1. Alternative form of czar

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Swedish

Etymology

From Russian царь (carʹ), from Old East Slavic цьсарь (cĭsarĭ), from Old Church Slavonic цѣсарь (cěsarĭ), from Gothic 𐌺𐌰𐌹𐍃𐌰𐍂 (kaisar, “emperor”), from Latin Caesar.

Noun

tsar c

1. tsar

Declension

Declension of tsar
	Singular		Plural
	Indefinite	Definite	Indefinite	Definite
Nominative	tsar	tsaren	tsarer	tsarerna
Genitive	tsars	tsarens	tsarers	tsarernas

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Tocharian A

Etymology

From Proto-Tocharian, ultimately from a derivative of Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰesr-, from *ǵʰes-. Cognate with Albanian dorë, Ancient Greek χείρ (kheír), Old Armenian ձեռն (jeṙn), Hittite [script needed] (kessar). Compare Tocharian B ṣar.

Noun

tsar m

1. hand