Word.ws English Dictionary

sambar

sambar noun: a Southeast Asian deer (Rusa unicolor).

sambar: a Southeast Asian deer (Rusa unicolor)
Image: Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

sambar (plural sambars)

  1. A Southeast Asian deer (Rusa unicolor).
    Synonyms:
    Cervus unicolor

Noun (2)

sambar (uncountable)

  1. A food preparation common in southern India and Sri Lanka, made of vegetables and lentils (usually pigeon peas, also called toor dal) in a spicy tamarind and lentil flour soup base.
    • A couple of vegetables, sambar (spicy and sour lentils and vegetables boiled with masalas and spices), rasam (a hot and fiery lentil soup-like dish) and curds (yoghurt) served with heaps of rice and eaten in that order. A non-vegetarian version of the “meals” can be found in “Military” hotels.2017 July 12, Sanjiv Khamgaonkar, “40 Mumbai foods we can’t live without”, in CNN

sambar meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Telugu

sambar in Hindi

sambar
साँभर sāmbhar

sambar in Tamil

large species of deer
கடமான் kaṭamāṉ

sambar in Marathi

sambar, thin piquant sauce made of pulses and spices
सांबार sāmbār

sambar in Telugu

sambar
సాంబారు sāmbāru
More languagesFewer languages
sambar in Malayalam
മ്ലാവ് mlāvŭ
sambar in Kannada
ಕಡವೆ kaḍave
sambar in Gujarati
સંભાર sambhār

Synonyms of sambar

  • Cervus unicolor

Forms of sambar

pluralsambars
alternative formsambhar
alternative formsambhur
alternative formsambur
alternative form (obsolete)sambre

Origin of sambar

Borrowed from Hindi सांभर (sāmbhar), साँभर (sāmbhar), from Sanskrit शम्बर (śambara, “a kind of deer”).

From Tamil சாம்பார் (cāmpār), from Marathi सांभार (sāmbhār)/सांबार (sāmbār, “curry”), from Old Marathi सांबार (sāṃbāra), from Sanskrit सम्भार (sambhārá, “materials required for a particular purpose, provision; collection of spices”), from Proto-Indo-Aryan *sambʰārás, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *sambʰārás, from Proto-Indo-European *sem-bʰor-ó-s, from *sem- (“together, one”) + *bʰer- (“to bear, carry”) + *-ós (deverbal suffix). Doublet of Anbar and ambar.

Questions about sambar

What does sambar mean?
Sambar means a Southeast Asian deer (Rusa unicolor).
What is sambar in Hindi?
Sambar in Hindi is साँभर (sāmbhar). See Sambar meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is sambar?
Sambar is a noun.
What is the plural of sambar?
The plural of sambar is sambars.

Words near sambar in the dictionary

  1. Sambalpuri
  2. sambals
  3. sambandham
  4. sambaqui
  5. sambaquis
  6. sambar
  7. sambars
  8. sambas
  9. sambaza
  10. sambazaed
  11. sambazaing

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sambar (page history and authors); साँभर (Hindi) (page history and authors); सांबार (Marathi) (page history and authors); సాంబారు (Telugu) (page history and authors); સંભાર (Gujarati) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-sambar.wav.

Cite this entry: “sambar.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sambar. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.