tsar

English

Alternative forms

• czar, tzar, csar

Etymology

Borrowed from Russian царь (carʹ), from Old East Slavic цьсарь (cĭsarĭ), from Proto-Slavic *cěsařь, from a Germanic language, from Proto-Germanic *kaisaraz, from Latin Caesar. Doublet of kaiser. The spelling tsar began to replace the older czar in the nineteenth century.

Pronunciation

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

• 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 states.
   • 1832 August 1, W. Barnes, “On the Origin of Language”, in Gentleman's Magazine‎^[1], London, page 129:

     and why, in the name of common sense, should the English call the Czar (tsar) of Russia raze?

2. (figuratively) A person with great power; an autocrat.

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, e.g. the monarch of Bulgaria (1908-1946).
• The spelling czar is the most common one in the US, especially in figurative and informal senses. Scholarly literature prefers tsar.

Derived terms

Related terms →

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

• tsarist, czarist
• czarocracy
• czarocrat
• czarocratic

Related terms

Related terms →

• csar
• czar
• tsarina
• tsaritsa

• tsarevna
• tsarevich
• tzar

Descendants

• → Hindi: ज़ार (zār), त्सार (tsār)
• → Irish: sár
• → Japanese: ツァー (tsā)
• → Urdu: زار‎, تسار‎

Translations

an emperor

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

  Dungan: хуонвон (huonvon)

  Mandarin: 沙皇 (zh) (shāhuáng)

• Chukchi: тиркэрым (tirkėrym)
• 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) m
• Greek: τσάρος (el) m (tsáros)
• Hebrew: צָאר‎ m (tsar)
• Hindi: ज़ार m (zār), त्सार m (tsār)
• Hungarian: cár (hu)
• Ido: caro (io), carulo (io)
• Ingrian: tsaari
• Irish: sár m
• Italian: zar (it) m
• Japanese: ツァーリ (ja) (tsāri), ツァー (ja) (tsā), ツァール (ja) (tsāru)
• Kashubian: césôrz m
• Kazakh: патша (patşa), царь (carʹ)
• Khmer: ត្សារ (tsaa)
• Korean: 차르 (ko) (chareu), 짜리 (jjari) (North Korea)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: qeyser (ku) m, çar (ku) m

• Kyrgyz: падыша (ky) (padışa), царь (tsarʹ)
• Latvian: cars m
• Lithuanian: caras (lt)
• Macedonian: цар m (car)

• Malay: czar
• Manchu: ᠴᠠᡤᠠᠨ
  ᡥᠠᠨ (cagan han)
• Marathi: त्सार m (tsār), जार (jār)
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: хаан (mn) (khaan)

  Uyghurjin: ᠬᠠᠭᠠᠨ (qaɣan)

• Northern Sami: cára
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: tsar m

  Nynorsk: tsar m

• Old Church Slavonic:

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

• Old East Slavic: цьсарь m (cĭsarĭ), царь m (carĭ)
• Pashto: تزار‎ (ps) m (tazãr)
• 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, RAST, RATs, RTAs, Star, TSRA, arts, arts., rats, sart, star, tars

---

Catalan

Noun

tsar m (plural tsars)

1. tsar

---

French

Alternative forms

• czar, tzar

Etymology

From Russian царь (carʹ), from Old East Slavic цьсарь (cĭsarĭ), from Proto-Slavic *cěsařь, from a Germanic language, from Proto-Germanic *kaisaraz, from Latin Caesar. Doublet of César.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tsaʁ/

Noun

tsar m (plural tsars)

1. czar (Russian nobility)

Related terms

• tsariste
• tsarisme
• tsarine

Descendants

• → Persian: تزار‎ (tezâr)

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• arts, rats, star

---

Galician

Noun

tsar m (plural tsares)

1. tsar

---

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Russian царь (carʹ), from Gothic 𐌺𐌰𐌹𐍃𐌰𐍂 (kaisar), from Latin Caesar

Noun

tsar m (definite singular tsaren, indefinite plural tsarer, definite plural tsarene)

1. a tsar or czar

References

• “tsar” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “tsar” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

---

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Russian царь (carʹ), from Gothic 𐌺𐌰𐌹𐍃𐌰𐍂 (kaisar), from Latin Caesar

Noun

tsar m (definite singular tsaren, indefinite plural tsarar, definite plural tsarane)

1. a tsar or czar

References

• “tsar” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

---

Portuguese

Noun

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

1. Alternative form of czar

---

Swedish

Etymology

From Russian царь (carʹ), from Old East Slavic цьсарь (cĭsarĭ), from Proto-Slavic *cěsařь, from a Germanic language, from Proto-Germanic *kaisaraz, 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

Anagrams

• arts, astr., rast, tars

---

Tocharian A

Etymology

From Proto-Tocharian [Term?], from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰésōr, 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