Czar or tsar?
czar is a noun meaning “Alternative spelling of tsar (especially common in American English)”; tsar is a noun meaning “An emperor of Russia (1547 to 1917) and of some South Slavic states”. Wiktionary gives them as spellings of the same word. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) tsar is about as common as czar.
What is the difference between czar and tsar?
| czar | tsar | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun | noun |
| Meaning | USinformalAn appointed official tasked to regulate or oversee a specific area | An emperor of Russia (1547 to 1917) and of some South Slavic states A person with great power; an autocrat |
| Example | drug czar | none recorded |
| Forms | czars | tsars |
| Pronunciation | /zɑː(ɹ)/ /t͡sɑː(ɹ)/ /t͡ʃɑːɹ/ | /(t)sɑː/ /zɑː/ /(t)sɑɹ/ |
| In writing | 1.0 times per million words | 1.4 times per million words |
Sources: czar and tsar in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of czar and tsar
czar
- 1
Alternative spelling of tsar (especially common in American English)
- 2
USinformalAn appointed official tasked to regulate or oversee a specific area
drug czar
tsar
- 1
An emperor of Russia (1547 to 1917) and of some South Slavic states
- 2
A person with great power; an autocrat
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, czar or tsar?
czar appears 1.0 times per million words; tsar 1.4 times per million words.
czar 1.0 times per million wordstsar 1.4 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search czar vs tsar?
“czar vs tsar” is searched about 1,600 times a month on Google and 50 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“tsar vs czar”, “czar or tsar”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.