tartar
Syllables: tar·tar/ˈtɑː.tə/US/ˈtɑɹ.tɚ/
tartar noun: a red compound deposited during wine making, mostly potassium hydrogen tartrate; wine stone — a source of cream of tartar.
Noun (1)
tartar (countable and uncountable, plural tartars)
- A red compound deposited during wine making, mostly potassium hydrogen tartrate; wine stone — a source of cream of tartar.
- In order to preserve it in the state of protoxide these receipts prescribe various deoxygenating substances to be stirred into the melted glass, such as Smith's clinkers, tartar, soot, rotten wood, and cinnibar.1847, editorial staff, “Painting on Glass”, in Scientific American, series 1, Volume 3, Issue 9, page 72
- Synonyms:
- wine stone
- A hard yellow deposit on the teeth, formed from dental plaque.
Noun (2)
tartar (plural tartars)
Noun (3) capitalized: Tartar
IPA/ˈtɑː(ɹ)tə(ɹ)/
Tartar (plural Tartars)
- Alternative spelling of Tatar.
- A member of the various tribes and their descendants of Tartary, such as Turks, Mongols and Manchus.
- Persia is a great country, which was in old times very illustrious and powerful; but now the Tartars have wasted and destroyed it.1871, Henry Yule, transl., The Travels of Marco Polo, Marco Polo, book 1, chapter 13
- A person of a keen, irritable temper.
- A rough or violent event.
- I haven't escaped sickness all my life to get off easily now. […] I knew when my turn came, it would be a Tartar.2003, Erik Larson, “Alone”, in The Devil in the White City, Vintage Books, page 106
Adjective capitalized: Tartar
IPA/ˈtɑː(ɹ)tə(ɹ)/
Tartar (comparative more Tartar, superlative most Tartar)
- Of or relating to the people or culture of Tartars.
- Tartar customs
Proper noun capitalized: Tartar
IPA/ˈtɑː(ɹ)tə(ɹ)/
Tartar
- One of the tributary rivers of the Kura, flowing through Artsakh and Azerbaijan.
- A town in Azerbaijan located on this river.
tartar meaning in Persian
tartar in Persian
- red compound deposited during wine making
- درد dord
Examples of tartar in a sentence
- He swears by cream of tartar to make the meringues stiff.
- For the renowned sushi chef, it was a guilty pleasure to eat fish sticks drowned in tartar sauce.
- Take two of these in the morning and control tartar yourself.
Synonyms of tartar
Forms of tartar
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | tartars |
| plural | Tartars |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more Tartar |
| superlative | most Tartar |
Origin of tartar
From Old French tartre, from Medieval Latin tartarum, from Byzantine Greek τάρταρον (tártaron), said to be from Arabic دُرْدِيّ (durdiyy), though it is already found in Pelagonius’s Ars veterinaria 46 in the adjective tartarālis, if the reading is correct. Arabic etymon from Persian درد (dord, “dreg”) from Proto-Iranian *dr̥ti- (“manure, feces”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰṛ-to-, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰreyd- (“to have diarrhea”), whence also doublet of dirt.
From figurative use of Tartar.
From Old French Tartaire, from Medieval Latin Tartarus (“Tartar, Mongol”), from Old Turkic 𐱃𐱃𐰺 (t¹t¹r¹), spelling influenced by Latin Tartarus (“Hell (in Greek mythology)”), from Ancient Greek Τάρταρος (Tártaros). Doublet of Tatar and tartare.
Words formed from tartar
- tartar sauce
- Fish-skin Tartar
- Tartaresque
- Tartarian
- Tartaric
- Tartarish
- Tartarlike
- Tartar maple
- cream of tartar
- cream of tartar bread
- detartrate
- hemitartrate
- oil of tartar
- salt of tartar
- tartar emetic
- tartareous
- tartarine
- tartarise
- tartarization
- tartarize
- tartarly
- tartaroborate
- tartarous
- tartralic
- tartramic
- tartramide
- tartrate
- tartrazine
- tartrelic
- tartronate
- tartronic
- tartronyl
- tartrovinic
Phrases with tartar
- tartar sauces
- catch a Tartar
- caught a Tartar
- catches a Tartar
- catching a Tartar
- cream of tartar tree
- cream of tartar trees
- get someone for a Tartar
- got someone for a Tartar
- gets someone for a Tartar
- gotten someone for a Tartar
- oil of tartar per deliquium
1 more phrasesFewer phrases
Words that rhyme with tartar
Questions about tartar
- What does tartar mean?
- Tartar means a red compound deposited during wine making, mostly potassium hydrogen tartrate; wine stone — a source of cream of tartar.
- What is tartar in Persian?
- Tartar in Persian is درد (dord). See Tartar meaning in Persian.
- What part of speech is tartar?
- Tartar can be a noun, an adjective or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce tartar?
- Tartar is pronounced /ˈtɑɹ.tɚ/ (US).
- What is the plural of tartar?
- The plural of tartar is tartars.
Words near tartar in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: tartar (page history and authors); Tartar (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)-Vealhurl-tartar.wav.
Cite this entry: “tartar.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tartar. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.