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 and Caesar. 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 (plural tsars)

Tsar Nicholas II.

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.
   • 1969 March 14 [1969 March 13], “Report from Border Areas”, in Daily Report: Foreign Radio Broadcasts‎^[2], number 50, Foreign Broadcast Information Service, sourced from Peking NCNA International Service, →OCLC, page A 6‎^[3]:

     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 emperors, 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
• Tsar Bomba
• tsardom, czardom
• tsarian
• tsarina, czarina
• tsarism, czarism
• tsarist, czarist

 

Related terms

Related terms

• csar
• czar
• tsarina
• tsaritsa
• tsarevna
• tsarevich
• 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) (early Qing)

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

  Cyrillic: цагаан хаан (mn) (cagaan xaan)

  Mongolian: ᠴᠠᠭᠠᠨ
  ᠬᠠᠭᠠᠨ (čaɣan qaɣan)

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

1. tsar

Derived terms

• tsarisme
• tsarista

Related terms

• tsarévitx
• tsarevna
• tsarina

 

Further reading

• “tsar” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

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:

  (file)

Noun

tsar m (plural tsars)

1. czar (Russian nobility)

Related terms

• tsariste
• tsarisme
• tsarine

Descendants

• → Persian: تزار (tezâr), تسار (tesâr) (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): /ˈza(ʁ)/ [ˈza(h)]

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈza(ʁ)/ [ˈza(h)]
  • (São Paulo) IPA^(key): /ˈza(ɾ)/
  • (Rio de Janeiro) IPA^(key): /ˈza(ʁ)/ [ˈza(χ)]
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈza(ɻ)/

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈzaɾ/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈzaɾ/
  • (Southern Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈza.ɾi/

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.

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 [script needed] (kessar). Compare Tocharian B ṣar.

Noun

tsar m

1. hand