tsar

[ zahr, tsahr ]

noun

1. a variant of czar.

tsar

/ zɑː; tsɑː /

noun

1. (until 1917) the emperor of Russia
2. a tyrant; autocrat
3. informal.
   a public official charged with responsibility for dealing with a certain problem or issue

   a drugs tsar

4. informal.
   a person in authority; leader
5. (formerly) any of several S Slavonic rulers, such as any of the princes of Serbia in the 14th century

Derived Forms

• ˈtsardom, noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of tsar¹

from Russian tsar , via Gothic kaisar from Latin Caesar

Example Sentences

In the 19th century it was the tsars who banned Ukrainian language books, schools, jailed Ukrainian patriots and dismissed the region as mere “little Russia.”

From Time

Just one year later the flamboyant internet tsar was out of his post, swept up in Xi’s wide-ranging anti-corruption campaign.

From Quartz

It is a separate state within Russia… And in this state there is a single, irreplaceable tsar.

From Time

He hosted him in the one-time office of Tsar Nicholas II that overlooks a tropical garden and the Black Sea.

From The Daily Beast

The Russian revolution of 1917 toppled the tsar and soon installed a bloodthirsty communist regime.

From The Daily Beast

“He would have thought he should be treated like a tsar,” says Patton.

From The Daily Beast

He killed his own son and heir by whacking him over the head with the monarchal staff in a tsar-ish fit of temper.

From The Daily Beast

One headline, decades earlier, must have struck him with the force of Tsar Bomba.

From The Daily Beast

Russian opera was then at a low ebb, and he only went to hear his favourite work, A Life for the Tsar.

From Project Gutenberg

Bute was deceived as regards the tsar's intentions, and his words were spoken in the interest of Prussia.

From Project Gutenberg

But to consent was one thing: the how another: the mere suspicion of the willingness of Kaiser or Tsar shook their thrones.

From Project Gutenberg

One was that I should form a liaison with some married lady; the other that I should become an adjutant to the Tsar.

From Project Gutenberg

The Tsar's own physicians attended her, but she became no better, and at last it was realised that an operation was inevitable.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• ruler