tsar

English

Alternative forms

• czar, tzar, csar

Etymology

Etymology tree

Latin Caesarbor.

Proto-Germanic *kaisarazder.

Proto-Slavic *cěsařь

Old East Slavic цѣсарь (cěsarĭ)

Old East Slavic цьсарь (cĭsarĭ)

Russian царь (carʹ)bor.

English tsar

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 Caesar and Kaiser. The spelling tsar began to replace the older czar in the nineteenth century. Compare Byzantine Greek Τζαῖσαρ (Tzaîsar).

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 Nicholas II.

tsar (plural tsars or (rare) tsari)

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:

     [W]hy, in the name of common sense, should the English call the Czar (tsar) of Russia razc?

   • 1996 May 19, Jim Collier, “King Arthur Discoveries”, in soc.history.medieval‎^[2] (Usenet), archived from the original on 7 June 2025:

     I vuz never beink too krazy about any of dose tsari.

   • 2004 April 5, «Pas de deux», “Yes Virginia (Erin), there are bad people in the world, and formewr KGB head Valdimir Putin is one of them....”, in soc.culture.baltics‎^[3] (Usenet), archived from the original on 7 June 2025:

     >There IS a difference between the Russians as a group of people and Soviet communism!
     Ha ha ha! Know any other good ones? First their^[sic] were the plain old tsari, then the red tsari (Stalin, etc) and know Putin is the 'new look' tsar. But the same beastly imperialist bullying goes on.

   • 2013, Kherlen Badarch, “Post-imperial Mongolia (1368–1691)”, in Integrating New Values into Mongolian Public Management (KWI-Gutachten; 8), Universitätsverlag Potsdam [Potsdam University Press], →ISBN, →ISSN, chapter 4 (Mongolian traditional legacy), section 4 (Mongolian statehood historic tradition), page 84:

     At that time Mongol princes faced the challenge of choosing from three options: either combine all their forces and fight against the Manchus, which were stronger and had taken over all of China at that time, or approach the Russian Tsari as did the Buryat and Khalmig Mongol princedoms or to follow the way of Inner Mongolia and accept relative autonomy given by the Manchu.

2. (figuratively) A person with great power; an autocrat.
   • 1969 March 14 [1969 March 13], “Report from Border Areas”, in Daily Report: Foreign Radio Broadcasts‎^[4], number 50, Foreign Broadcast Information Service, sourced from Peking NCNA International Service, →OCLC, page A 6‎^[5]:

     Chin Chien-shih, an old poor peasant of Korean nationality, said: "The wolfish ambition of the new tsars is exactly the same as that of the old tsars. The Soviet revisionist renegade clique is struggling desperately in the hope of saving itself from doom, but this will only bring on its destruction more quickly."

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 rulers, besides those of Russia, e.g. the monarch of Bulgaria (1908-1946).
• The spelling czar is predominant in figurative and informal senses. Scholarly literature prefers tsar.

Derived terms

• czarocracy
• czarocrat
• czarocratic
• if only the tsar knew
• tsardom, czardom
• tsarian
• tsarina, czarina
• tsarism, czarism
• tsarist, czarist

Related terms

• csar
• czar
• Tsar Bomba
• tsarevich
• tsarevna
• tsarina
• tsaritsa
• tzar

Descendants

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

Translations

an emperor

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

  Dungan: хуонвон (huonvon)

  Mandarin: 沙皇 (zh) (shāhuáng), 察罕汗 (zh) (cháhǎnhàn) (early Qing)

• Chukchi: тиркэрым (tirkėrym)
• Crimean Tatar: çar
• Czech: car (cs) m
• Danish: zar (da) c
• Dutch: tsaar (nl) m
• 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 (he) m (tsar)
• Hindi: ज़ार m (zār), त्सार m (tsār), जार (hi) m (jār)
• Hungarian: cár (hu)
• Ido: caro (io), carulo (io)
• Ingrian: kuningas
• 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)
• Karelian: čuari
• Kashubian: césôrz m
• Kazakh: патша (patşa), царь (sar)
• 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 (tsar)
• Latvian: cars m
• Lithuanian: caras (lt) m
• Macedonian: цар m (car)
• Malay: czar
• Manchu: ᠴᠠᡤᠠᠨ
  ᡥᠠᠨ (cagan han)
• Marathi: त्सार m (tsār), जार (jār)
• Mongolian:

  Classical Mongolian: ᠴᠠᠭᠠᠨ
  ᠬᠠᠭᠠᠨ (čaɣan qaɣan), ᠬᠠᠭᠠᠨ (qaɣan)

  Cyrillic: цагаан хаан (cagaan xaan)

  Mongolian script: ᠴᠠᠭᠠᠨ
  ᠬᠠᠭᠠᠨ (čaɣan qaɣan)

• 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:

  Iranian Persian: تِزار (tezâr), تِسار (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)
• Sami:

  Northern Sami: cára

  Skolt Sami: caarr

• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ца̏р m

  Latin: cȁr (sh) m

• 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), تْسار m (tsār), تِسار m (tisār)
• Uyghur: چار (char)
• Uzbek: podsho (uz), shoh (uz), tsar
• Vietnamese: sa hoàng (vi), 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

• tars, sart, ARTS, arts., 'rats, tars-, ARTs, rats, Sart, srat, Srta., star, RATs, RAST, Arts, stra., Srta, arts, astr-, TSRA, RTAs, Star, TRAs

Catalan

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 Cèsar.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [ˈtsar]

Noun

tsar m (plural tsars, feminine tsarina, feminine plural tsarines)

1. tsar

Derived terms

• tsarisme
• tsarista

Related terms

• tsarévitx
• tsarevna
• tsarina

Further reading

• “tsar”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007

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/

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

Noun

tsar m (plural tsars)

1. czar (Russian nobility)

Related terms

• tsariste
• tsarisme
• tsarine

Descendants

• → Persian: تزار (tezâr), تسار (tesâr), تیسار (tisâr), چار (čâr) (rare)

Further reading

• “tsar”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

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

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /t͡ʃiˈzaʁ/ [t͡ʃiˈzah], /ˈtsaʁ/ [ˈtsah]

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /t͡ʃiˈzaʁ/ [t͡ʃiˈzah], /ˈtsaʁ/ [ˈtsah]
  • (São Paulo) IPA^(key): /t͡ʃiˈzaɾ/, /ˈtsaɾ/
  • (Rio de Janeiro) IPA^(key): /t͡ʃiˈzaʁ/ [t͡ʃiˈzaχ], /ˈtsaʁ/ [ˈtsaχ]
  • (Caipira) IPA^(key): /t͡ʃiˈzaɻ/, /ˈtsaɻ/

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈtsaɾ/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈtsaɾ/
  • (Southern Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈtsa.ɾi/

• Hyphenation: tsar

Noun

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

1. alternative form of czar

Further reading

• “tsar”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

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.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tsɑːr/, /sɑːr/

Noun

tsar c

1. tsar

Declension

Declension of tsar

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	tsar	tsars
	definite	tsaren	tsarens
plural	indefinite	tsarer	tsarers
	definite	tsarerna	tsarernas

Related terms

• tsardöme
• tsarinna

Further reading

• tsar in Svenska Akademiens ordböcker

Anagrams

• arts, astr., rast, tars

Tocharian A

Etymology

From Proto-Tocharian *ṣar, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰésōr, from *ǵʰes-. Cognate with Albanian dorë, Ancient Greek χείρ (kheír), Old Armenian ձեռն (jeṙn), Hittite 𒆠𒌍𒊬 (keššar). Compare Tocharian B ṣar.

Noun

tsar m

1. hand