tsar
tsar Lexical Profile
tsar Game Scores & Validity
• noun
An emperor of Russia before 1917, or historically a male monarch or supreme ruler of certain Slavic states such as Bulgaria or Serbia.
"The Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg served as the official residence of the Russian tsar for nearly two centuries."
A person appointed by a government to advise on and coordinate policy in a particular area, or any figure holding great authority or power in a specific sphere.
"The administration appointed a new cybersecurity tsar to oversee the protection of critical national infrastructure."
Word Nuance & Usage
Both "tsar" and "czar" are widely accepted spellings; "tsar" is generally preferred by historians and linguists as a more accurate transliteration from Russian, whereas "czar" is frequently used in American journalism to refer to high-level government policy advisers.
• Rhymes for tsar
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed in the mid-16th century from Russian tsar', via Old Church Slavonic tsěsarĭ from Gothic kaisar, ultimately derived from Latin Caesar, the family name of the Roman dictator Julius Caesar.