czar

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points: 15
Words With Friends: 16
Letters: 4

Pronunciation

/zɑː(ɹ)/

See all 3 pronunciations

/zɑː(ɹ)/ · /t͡sɑː(ɹ)/ · /t͡ʃɑːɹ/

Definition of czar

4 senses · 2 parts of speech · etymology included

noun

(alt-of, alternative)Alternative spelling of tsar (especially common in American English)

“Note therfore that Czar in the Ruthens tounge signifieth a kynge, wheras in the language of the Slauons, Pollons, Bohemes, and other, the same woorde Czar, signifieth Cesar by whiche name Themperours haue byn commonly cauled.”
“To understand Russia, you have to dive deep into its history — boyars and czars, Pushkin and Pasternak, Stalin and Stalingrad.”

See all 4 definitions

noun

(alt-of, alternative)Alternative spelling of tsar (especially common in American English)

“Note therfore that Czar in the Ruthens tounge signifieth a kynge, wheras in the language of the Slauons, Pollons, Bohemes, and other, the same woorde Czar, signifieth Cesar by whiche name Themperours haue byn commonly cauled.”
“To understand Russia, you have to dive deep into its history — boyars and czars, Pushkin and Pasternak, Stalin and Stalingrad.”
(Philippine, US, informal)An appointed official tasked to regulate or oversee a specific area.

“drug czar”
“cyberczar”
“The federal mental health czar is calling for more money to expand services to help people suffering amid the social isolation imposed by the coronavirus pandemic […]”

name

A village in Alberta, Canada.
An unincorporated community in West Virginia.

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

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 czar See tsar. The spelling czar, the older spelling in English, comes from the book Notes on Muscovite Affairs (1549) by Sigismund von Herberstein. It was supplanted by the alternative tsar in the 19th century.