tart
UK/tɑːt/US/tɑɹt/
tart adjective: sharp to the taste; acid; sour.
Adjective
tart (comparative tarter, superlative tartest)
- Sharp to the taste; acid; sour.
- I ate a very tart apple.
- High or too high in acidity.
- Synonyms:
- green
- Sharp; keen; severe.
- He gave me a very tart reply.
- [French president Emmanuel] Macron fired back [at US president Donald Trump] on Thursday with his own tart riposte, telling journalists, “This is not a show. We are talking about war and peace. ... When you want to be serious,” he continued, “you don’t say every day the opposite of what you said...2026 April 5, Howard LaFranchi, “Trump’s war in Iran puts new strain on alliances. Why this time it’s different.”, in The Christian Science Monitor, Boston, Massachusetts: Christian Science...
Noun (1)
tart (plural tarts)
- A type of small open pie, or piece of pastry, now typically containing jelly (US) / jam (UK) or conserve, or sometimes other fillings (chocolate, custard, egg, butter, historically even meat or other savory fillings).
- A melt (block of wax for use in a tart burner).
Noun (2)
tart (plural tarts)
- A prostitute.
- Any woman with loose sexual morals.
- We know the majority of the places that these tarts will hang out at.1950, Roy E. Blick (police inspector), testimony before the United States Congress
- In the garden I was playing the tart / I kissed your lips and broke your heart1991, “Until the End of the World”, in Bono (lyrics), Achtung Baby, performed by U2
Verb
tart (third-person singular simple present tarts, present participle tarting, simple past and past participle tarted)
- To practice prostitution.
- To practice promiscuous sex.
- To dress garishly, ostentatiously, whorishly, or sluttily.
Proper noun capitalized: Tart
Tart (plural Tarts)
- A surname.
tart meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
tart in Hindi
- टार्ट
tart in Tamil
- பொதியப்பம், அப்பவகை, பழங்கள் உட்பொதித்த பண்ணியம், கிறுக்கி, வேசி
tart in Urdu
- prostitute
- طوائف tvāf
tart in Bengali
- টক, কটু
More languagesFewer languages
- tart in Telugu
- టార్ట్
- tart in Malayalam
- എരിവുളള, പരുഷസ്വഭാവമുളള, ക്രൂരപദങ്ങൾ പ്രയോഗിക്കുന്ന, രൂക്ഷമായി നോക്കുന്ന
- tart in Kannada
- ಸೂಳೆ, ನಡತೆಗೆಟ್ಟವಳು, ಕನರ್, ಹುಳಿ
- tart in Gujarati
- ટાર્ટ, ટાર્ટ કરવા માટે
- tart in Odia
- ଟାର୍ଟ, ଟାର୍ଟ୍, ଟାର୍ଟ କରିବା ପାଇଁ
- tart in Nepali
- टार्ट, टर्ट, टार्ट गर्न
- tart in Malay
- tat, tart
- tart in Indonesian
- tar
- tart in Persian
- ترش torš, زست zost, تارت târt
- tart in Thai
- ทาร์ต
Examples of tart in a sentence
- We think that you stole the tarts. — That I did not!
- Victor pared some apples in preparation to make a tart.
- After much effort, she was able to overcome the pop tart label and be taken seriously as a musician.
Synonyms of tart
Forms of tart
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | tarter |
| superlative | tartest |
| Noun | |
| plural | tarts |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | tarts |
| present participle | tarting |
| past participle | tarted |
| past | tarted |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Tarts |
Origin of tart
From Middle English tart, from Old English teart (“sharp, rough, severe”), from Proto-West Germanic *tart, from Proto-Germanic *tartaz (“rough, sharp, tearing”), from Proto-Germanic *teraną (“to tear”), from Proto-Indo-European *der- (“to flay, split, cleave”). Related to Scots tairt (“tart; tartness”), Dutch tarten (“to defy, challenge, mock”), German trotzen (“to defy, brave, mock”), perhaps Albanian thartë (“sour, acid, sharp”).
From Middle English tart, tarte, from Old French tarte, tartre (“flat pastry”) (compare Medieval Latin tarta), of unknown origin. Perhaps an alteration of Old French torte, tourte, from Latin turta, perhaps from tŏrta f (“twisted”), in which case it would be cognate to torta.
From a rebracketing of sweetheart, or from jam tart (“attractive woman”) by shortening.
Words formed from tart
- overtart
- tart cherry
- tarten
- tartly
- tartness
- tartish
- tarty
- Bakewell tart
- Banbury tart
- butter tart
- chess tart
- custard tart
- egg custard tart
- egg tart
- gooseberry tart
- gypsy tart
- kueh tart
- kuih tart
- Linzer tart
- maid-of-honor tart
- maid of honor tart
- maid of honour tart
- maid-of-honour tart
- maids of honour tart
- Manchester tart
- minitart
- neenish tart
- pineapple tart
- raspberry tart
- snake tart
- taffety tart
- tart ring
- tartwoman
- treacle tart
- tartlike
- card tart
- cart tart
- credit card tart
- rate tart
- tart card
- tartlet
- pop tart
- tart up
Phrases with tart
Words that rhyme with tart
32 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about tart
- What does tart mean?
- Tart means sharp to the taste; acid; sour.
- What is tart in Hindi?
- Tart in Hindi is टार्ट. See Tart meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is tart?
- Tart can be an adjective, a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce tart?
- Tart is pronounced /tɑɹt/ (US).
Words near tart in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: tart (page history and authors); Tart (page history and authors); tart (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tart (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); tart (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); tart (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tart (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); tart (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); tart (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tart (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tart (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: En-au-tart.ogg.
Cite this entry: “tart.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tart. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.