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  1. czar love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A male monarch or emperor, especially one of the emperors who ruled Russia until the revolution of 1917.
  2. n. A person having great power; an autocrat: "the square-jawed, ruddy complacency of Jack Farrell, the czar of the Fifteenth Street police station” ( Ernest Hemingway).
  3. n. Informal An appointed official having special powers to regulate or supervise an activity: a racetrack czar; an energy czar.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. An emperor; a king; specifically, the common title of the Emperor of Russia. In old Russian annals the Mongol princes of Russia from the twelfth century are called czars; the first independent Russian prince to assume the title was Ivan IV., the Terrible, who in 1547 was crowned Czar of Moscow. The title czar, though historically equivalent, like its original Cæsar, to emperor, was not recognized as involving imperial rank at the time of its assumption by Ivan; and Peter the Great's assumption of such rank under the title of imperator, in addition to that of czar, was long contested by other powers.
  2. n. An article of dress, apparently a cravat, in use in the early part of the eighteenth century: probably named in compliment to Peter the Great, who visited England in 1698.

Wiktionary

  1. n. alternative spelling of tsar.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. A king; a chief; the title of the emperor of Russia.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a person having great power
  2. n. a male monarch or emperor (especially of Russia prior to 1917)

Etymologies

  1. From Russian царь (tsar'), from Latin Caesar. (Wiktionary)
  2. Russian tsar', from Old Russian tsĭsarĭ, emperor, king, from Old Church Slavonic tsěsarĭ, from Gothic kaisar, from Greek, from Latin Caesar, emperor; see caesar. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “The term "czar" dates back to Franklin Roosevelt's administration.”

    USA Today: GOP lawmaker blasts Obama for ignoring Congress on 'czars'

  • “JOHN WALTERS, BUSH ADMINISTRATION DRUG CZAR: Well, with the title czar, you are asking for it.”

    CNN Transcript Jun 15, 2009

  • “COSTELLO: But the University of Virginia's Larry Sabato, who wrote the "Year of Obama" says the title czar is mostly to make the tough government job sound more attractive.”

    CNN Transcript Jun 15, 2009

  • “I mean, I-- everyone always, it seems to me, throws out the term czar when they don't know what else to do.”

    CNN Transcript Dec 8, 2008

  • “I mean, everyone always seems to me throws out the term czar when they don't know what else to do.”

    CNN Transcript Dec 8, 2008

  • “‡ The term czar is sometimes applied generally to a powerful leader or to a government administrator with wide-ranging powers.”

    czar

  • “Nobody over there uses the term czar, so I can't figure out why we would either.”

    billingsgazette.com

  • “The word czar comes from the Russian tsar which in turn was derived from the Latin Caesar.”

    South Dakota Politics

  • “I would imagine if anybody who would merit the title czar would look a lot deeper than just the record," he said.”

    StAugustine.com

  • “Not to nit-pick, but the sugar import quota czar is apparently a “she” – not a “he.””

    Matthew Yglesias » Public Sector Pay

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synonyms (3)

Words with the same meaning

  1. king
  1. chief
  1. monarch

hypernyms (3)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. despot
  1. tyrant
  1. autocrat

same context (5)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. czarina
  1. heifer
  1. feedbackforum
  1. dauphin
  1. Pharaoh

rhymes (78)

Words with the same terminal sound

  1. Adar
  2. Aer
  3. Afar
  4. Ajar
  5. Ar
  6. Azar
  7. Babar
  8. Bar
  9. Barr
  10. Belvoir
  11. Car
  12. Dakar
  13. Farrar
  14. Lahr
  15. Lar
  1. Mar
  2. Myanmar
  3. Navarre
  4. Par
  5. Parr
  6. Qatar
  7. R
  8. Renoir
  9. Saar
  10. Starr
  11. Thar
  12. Ulaanbaatar
  13. afar
  14. ajar
  15. ar
  1. are
  2. baar
  3. bar
  4. barre
  5. bazaar
  6. bazar
  7. bizarre
  8. bondar
  9. boyar
  10. car
  11. carr
  12. carre
  13. char
  14. cigar
  15. darr
  1. dinar
  2. disbar
  3. fahr
  4. far
  5. foobar
  6. gar
  7. guitar
  8. haar
  9. har
  10. jaffar
  11. jar
  12. lar
  13. mahr
  14. mar
  15. our
  1. paar
  2. par
  3. parr
  4. phar
  5. quarre
  6. r
  7. r.
  8. sagar
  9. scar
  10. sitar
  11. spar
  12. star
  13. subpar
  14. superstar
  15. tar
  1. thar
  2. tsar
  3. wor

reverse dictionary (64)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. Godunov
  2. Peter I
  3. peter the great
  4. Alexander I
  5. czar alexander i
  6. czar alexander ii
  7. czar alexander iii
  8. czar nicholas i
  9. czar peter i
  10. ivan iv
  11. Ivan IV Vasilievich
  12. ivan the terrible
  1. Nicholas I
  2. Nicholas II
  3. aleksandr pavlovich
  4. Alexander II
  5. Alexander III
  6. alexander the liberator
  7. boris fyodorovich godunov
  8. Boris Godunov
  9. tsar
  10. tzar
  11. ksar
  12. czar
  1. raskolnik
  2. may laws
  3. czarinian
  4. czarish
  5. czarowitz
  6. grand duchess
  7. czardom
  8. czarism
  9. in-take
  10. Poetrypresentation
  11. 11Just
  12. 1hmmmmmm
  1. Datacad
  2. Austerlitz
  3. czarevna
  4. czarina
  5. hospodar
  6. czarian
  7. czarevitch
  8. Decembrist
  9. Glinka
  10. Paul I
  11. Romanov
  12. Kazan
  1. Alexis I Mikhailovich
  2. ukase
  3. amber room
  4. tsarina
  5. tsarist
  6. tsaristic
  7. tsaritsa
  8. tzarina
  9. tzarist
  10. grand duke
  11. czarist
  12. czaristic
  1. czaritza
  2. Battle of Austerlitz
  3. russian church
  4. monarch

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Comments

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  • chained_bear Some less-imposing Russian rulers. Aug 26, 2008

  • bilby Pronounced: k-ZAR. Ugly, shoddily-made automobile from any ex-Soviet bloc country. Apr 8, 2008

  • rolig Also note that the American political usage of this word to mean the person who's been appointed to oversee a certain area or problem, is always spelt czar: drug czar, AIDS czar, etc. Dec 17, 2007

  • rolig From the Online Etymology Dictionary:
    "The spelling with cz- is against the usage of all Slavonic languages; the word was so spelt by Herberstein, Rerum Moscovit. Commentarii, 1549, the chief early source of knowledge as to Russia in Western Europe, whence it passed into the Western Languages generally; in some of these it is now old-fashioned; the usual Ger. form is now zar; French adopted tsar during the 19th c. This also became frequent in English towards the end of that century, having been adopted by the Times newspaper as the most suitable English spelling. OED" Dec 17, 2007

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‘czar’ has been looked up 4692 times, loved by 2 people, added to 24 lists, commented on 4 times, and has a Scrabble score of 15.