Tatar

American  

[tah-ter] / ˈtɑ tər /

noun

1. a member of a modern Turkic people living in the Tatar Autonomous Republic and adjacent regions of eastern European Russia and in widely scattered communities in western Siberia and central Asia.

2. the language of this people, including the literary language of the Tatar Autonomous Republic, the dialects of the Tatar Autonomous Republic and adjacent regions of the Volga basin Volga Tatar, and numerous other dialects, some transitional to other Turkic languages.

3. Crimean Tatar.

4. Tartar.

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adjective

1. of or relating to the Tatars or their language.

2. Tartar.

Tatar British  

/ tɑːˈtærɪk, ˈtɑːtə, tɑːˈtɛərɪən /

noun

1. 1. a member of a Mongoloid people who under Genghis Khan established a vast and powerful state in central Asia from the 13th century until conquered by Russia in 1552

   2. a descendant of this people, now scattered throughout Russia but living chiefly in the Tatar Republic

2. any of the languages spoken by the present-day Tatars, belonging to various branches of the Turkic family of languages, esp Kazan Tatar

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adjective

1. of, relating to, or characteristic of the Tatars

Other Word Forms

• Tatarian adjective
• Tataric adjective

Etymology

Origin of Tatar

First recorded in 1805–15; see origin at Tartar

Example Sentences

Ten years earlier, his predecessor Stalin had deported Crimea's Tatar population, so the majority population was ethnic Russian.

From BBC • Feb. 23, 2026

Mr Khan, the MP for Manchester Rusholme, also met with Turkish-Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar - a move which the Cypriot government described as "absolutely condemnable and unacceptable".

From BBC • Aug. 15, 2025

Tatar, who was among pending Kraken free agents the team opted not to trade, then narrowly missed a third-period scoring chance on a backhand from the slot that went just wide of the post.

From Seattle Times • Mar. 8, 2024

That’s how things will stay for now with Tomas Tatar sticking with the Beniers and Eberle trio.

From Seattle Times • Mar. 7, 2024

In Toklouk, Kooz, and Otouz, which we passed through successively, the flat-roofed Tatar houses are, as everywhere else, backed against the hills that flank the valley.

From Travels in the Steppes of the Caspian Sea, the Crimea, the Caucasus, &c. by Hell, Xavier Hommaire de