tsar

• czar, tzar, csar

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.^[1] Doublet of Caesar and Kaiser. The spelling tsar began to replace the older czar in the nineteenth century. Compare Byzantine Greek Τζαῖσαρ (Tzaîsar).

• (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

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."

• (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.

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

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

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.

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

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

1. tsar

• tsarisme
• tsarista

• “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

• czar, tzar

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.

• IPA^(key): /tsaʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

tsar m (plural tsars)

1. czar (Russian nobility)

• tsariste
• tsarisme
• tsarine

• → Persian: تزار (tezâr), تسار (tesâr) (rare)

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

• arts, rats, star

tsar m (plural tsares)

1. tsar

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

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

1. a tsar or czar

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

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

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

1. a tsar or czar

• “tsar” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

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

1. alternative form of czar

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.

• IPA^(key): /tsɑːr/, /sɑːr/

tsar c

1. tsar

• tsardöme
• tsarinna

• tsar in Svenska Akademiens ordböcker

• arts, astr., rast, tars

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.

tsar m

1. hand