tar
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A black, oily, sticky, viscous substance, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons derived from organic materials such as wood, peat.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
tahrIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈtɑɹ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
usually uncountable
A black, oily, sticky, viscous substance, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons derived from organic materials such as wood, peat, or coal.
uncountable
Black tar, a form of heroin.
uncountable
A solid residual byproduct of tobacco smoke.
A Persian long-necked, waisted string instrument, shared by many cultures and countries in the Middle East and the Caucasus.
A single-headed round frame drum originating in North Africa and the Middle East.
Coal tar.
verb
transitive
To coat with tar.
transitive
To besmirch.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A black, oily, sticky, viscous substance, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons derived from organic materials such as wood, peat, or coal.
Used this way, tar is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use tar
- “The road crew used tar to patch the cracks in the pavement.”
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.