tar.
A black, oil, sticky, viscous substance, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons derived from organic materials such as wood, peat, or coal.
Meaning & usage
A black, oil, sticky, viscous substance, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons derived from organic materials such as wood, peat, or coal. Coal tar.
A black, oil, sticky, viscous substance, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons derived from organic materials such as wood, peat, or coal. (often typeset "tar" in USA) A solid residual byproduct of tobacco smoke.
A sailor (because of the traditional tarpaulin clothes).
Ellipsis of black tar heroin.
Where this word comes from
PIE word *dóru Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dóruder. Proto-Germanic *terwą Old English teoru Middle English ter English tar From Middle English ter, terr, tarr, from Old English teoru, from Proto-West Germanic *teru, from Proto-Germanic *terwą, from Proto-Indo-European *derwo-, from *dóru (“tree”). See also Saterland Frisian Taar, West Frisian tarre, tar, Dutch teer, German Teer; also Welsh derw (“oaks”), Lithuanian dervà (“pinewood, resin”), Russian де́рево (dérevo, “tree”), Bulgarian дърво́ (dărvó, “tree”). More at tree.
To coat with tar.
To besmirch.
The allegations tarred his name, even though he was found innocent.
Where this word comes from
PIE word *dóru Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dóruder. Proto-Germanic *terwą Old English teoru Middle English ter English tar From Middle English ter, terr, tarr, from Old English teoru, from Proto-West Germanic *teru, from Proto-Germanic *terwą, from Proto-Indo-European *derwo-, from *dóru (“tree”). See also Saterland Frisian Taar, West Frisian tarre, tar, Dutch teer, German Teer; also Welsh derw (“oaks”), Lithuanian dervà (“pinewood, resin”), Russian де́рево (dérevo, “tree”), Bulgarian дърво́ (dărvó, “tree”). More at tree.
A program for archiving files, common on Unix systems.
A file produced by such a program.
Where this word comes from
Abbreviation of tape archive.
To create a tar archive.
Where this word comes from
Abbreviation of tape archive.
A Persian long-necked, waisted string instrument, shared by many cultures and countries in the Middle East and the Caucasus.
Where this word comes from
Borrowed from Persian تار (târ). Doublet of tantra.
A single-headed round frame drum originating in North Africa and the Middle East.
Where this word comes from
Borrowed from Arabic طار (ṭār).
Alternative form of tara (“Indian coin”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.