tartar

CEFRB2

/ˈtɑː(ɹ)tə(ɹ)/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A hard substance that forms on teeth or a spicy sauce.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A fearsome or angrily violent person.

Examples

  • I think I have a lot of tartar.

  • The tartar has to be removed.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
4
Parts of speech
1
Citations
2
Synonyms
1

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. A hard yellow deposit on the teeth, formed from dental plaque.

  2. A red compound deposited during wine making, mostly potassium hydrogen tartrate; wine stone — a source of cream of tartar.

More examples

In context

  • Tartar customs

  • Mrs. Begg said she liked Mrs. Dain, who was a sensible woman and a first-rate housewife, but that Gabrielle was a tartar.

  • Persia is a great country, which was in old times very illustrious and powerful; but now the Tartars have wasted and destroyed it.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The dentist removed the hard blank from the patient's teeth.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

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.