bar

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /bɑː/
• (General American) enPR: bär, IPA^(key): /bɑɹ/, [bɑɹ], [bɑ˞]
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /baː/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)
• Homophones: baa, bah (in some pronunciations)

From Middle English barre, from Old French barre (“beam, bar, gate, barrier”), from Vulgar Latin *barra, of uncertain origin. Doublet of barre.

bar (countable and uncountable, plural bars)

Two steel bars

A toll bar in Romania

1. A solid, more or less rigid object of metal or wood with a uniform cross-section smaller than its length.

   The window was protected by steel bars.

2. (countable, uncountable, metallurgy) A solid metal object with uniform (round, square, hexagonal, octagonal or rectangular) cross-section; in the US its smallest dimension is ¹⁄₄ inch or greater, a piece of thinner material being called a strip.

   Ancient Sparta used iron bars instead of handy coins in more valuable alloy, to physically discourage the use of money.

   We are expecting a carload of bar tomorrow.

3. A cuboid piece of any solid commodity.

   bar of chocolate

   bar of soap

4. A broad shaft, band, or stripe.

   a bar of light

   a bar of colour

5. A long, narrow drawn or printed rectangle, cuboid or cylinder, especially as used in a bar code or a bar chart.
6. (typography) Any of various lines used as punctuation or diacritics, such as the pipe ⟨|⟩, fraction bar (as in 12), and strikethrough (as in Ⱥ), formerly (obsolete) including oblique marks such as the slash.

   Hyponyms: pipe, strikethrough, macron

7. (mathematics) The sign indicating that the characteristic of a logarithm is negative, conventionally placed above the digit(s) to show that it applies to the characteristic only and not to the mantissa.
8. (physics) A similar sign indicating that the charge on a particle is the negative of its usual value (and that consequently the particle is in fact an antiparticle).
9. A business selling alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises, or the premises themselves; a public house.

   Synonyms: barroom, ginshop, (British) pub, public house, tavern; see also Thesaurus:pub

   The street was lined with all-night bars.

10. The counter of such premises.

    Synonym: wet bar

    Step up to the bar and order a drink.

11. A counter, or simply a cabinet, from which alcoholic drinks are served in a private house or a hotel room.
12. (by extension, in combination) Premises or a counter serving any type of beverage.

    coffee bar; juice bar

13. An informal establishment selling food to be consumed on the premises.

    a burger bar

    a local fish bar

14. An establishment offering cosmetic services.

    a nail bar; a brow bar

15. An official order or pronouncement that prohibits some activity.

    Synonyms: ban, prohibition

    The club has lifted its bar on women members.

16. Anything that obstructs, hinders, or prevents; an obstruction; a barrier.
    • 1675, John Dryden, Aureng-zebe: A Tragedy. […], London: […] T[homas] N[ewcomb] for Henry Herringman, […], published 1676, →OCLC, Act V, page 83:

      Muſt I new bars to my own joy create?

    • 2013, Terence Dillon, A Long Way Home, page 184:

      Mr Harding could look back on his initial judgement of Paul's talent with great satisfaction while Paul could reflect that to be Irish was not necessarily a bar to progress.

17. (programming, derived from fubar) A metasyntactic variable representing an unspecified entity, often the second in a series, following foo.

    Suppose we have four objects, foo, bar, baz and quux.

18. (UK, Parliament) A dividing line (physical or notional) in the chamber of a legislature beyond which only members and officials may pass.
19. (UK, law) The railing surrounding the part of a courtroom in which the judges, lawyers, defendants and witnesses stay.
20. (US, Philippines, law, usually with the) The bar exam, the legal licensing exam.

    He's studying hard to pass the Bar this time; he's failed it twice before.

21. (law, metonymically, "the Bar", "the bar") Collectively, lawyers or the legal profession; specifically applied to barristers in some countries, but including all lawyers in others.

    He was called to the bar, he became a barrister.

22. (telecommunications, electronics) One of an array of bar-shaped symbols that display the level of something, such as wireless signal strength or battery life remaining.

    I don't have any bars in the middle of this desert.

23. (music) A vertical line across a musical staff dividing written music into sections, typically of equal durational value.
24. (music) One of those musical sections.

    Synonym: measure

25. (sports) A horizontal pole that must be crossed in the high jump and pole vault.
26. (figurative) Any level of achievement regarded as a challenge to be overcome.
27. (soccer, most codes) The crossbar.
    • 2010 December 29, Chris Whyatt, “Chelsea 1 - 0 Bolton”, in BBC‎:

      Composed play then saw Sam Ricketts nutmeg Ashley Cole before Taylor whipped a fine curling effort over Petr Cech's bar.

28. (backgammon) The central divider between the inner and outer table of a backgammon board, where stones are placed if they are hit.
29. An addition to a military medal, on account of a subsequent act.
30. (geography, nautical, hydrology) A ridge or succession of ridges of sand or other substance; especially:
    1. A linear shoaling landform feature within a body of water; a formation extending across the mouth of a river or harbor or off a beach, and which may obstruct navigation. (FM 55-501).

       Synonym: bank

       Hyponym: sandbar

       • 1868, “Route 20: London to Tiflis […] ”, in Handbook for Travellers in Russia, Poland, and Finland, 2nd edition, London: John Murray, page 320:

         Travellers change at Batoum into a steamer which performs the service between that port and Poti, and which has a less draught of water to enable it to cross the bar of the river Rion.

31. (heraldry) One of the ordinaries in heraldry; a diminutive of a fess.

    Coordinate terms: barrulet, closet

32. A city gate, in some British place names.

    Temple Bar, London

33. (mining) A drilling or tamping rod.
34. (mining) A vein or dike crossing a lode.
35. (architecture) A gatehouse of a castle or fortified town.
36. (farriery) The part of the crust of a horse's hoof which is bent inwards towards the frog at the heel on each side, and extends into the centre of the sole.
37. (farriery, in the plural) The space between the tusks and grinders in the upper jaw of a horse, in which the bit is placed.
38. (slang) A measure of drugs, typically one ounce.
    • 1994 [1993], Irvine Welsh, “The First Shag in Ages”, in Trainspotting, London: Minerva, →ISBN, page 151:

      Tell Sick Boy tae gie us a bell if ye see um. The bastard owes us twenty fuckin bar.

39. (slang, hip-hop) A complimentary reference to a rapper's lyrics, especially when good.

    That rapper there, yeah, he got bars.

• (heraldry): Ordinary on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• The Manual of Heraldry, Fifth Edition, by Anonymous, London, 1862, online at

From Middle English barren, from Old French barrer,[1] from Medieval Latin barrare (“to bar”), from the noun. Cognate to Occitan barrar, Spanish barrar, Portuguese barrar.

Preposition properly imperative of the verb. Compare barring.

bar (third-person singular simple present bars, present participle barring, simple past and past participle barred)

1. (transitive) To obstruct the passage of (someone or something).

   Our way was barred by a huge rockfall.

   • 1906 August, Alfred Noyes, “The Highwayman”, in Poems, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., published October 1906, →OCLC, part 1, stanza V, page 47:

     'One kiss, my bonny sweetheart, I'm after a prize to-night, / But I shall be back with the yellow gold before the morning light; / Yet, if they press me sharply, and harry me through the day, / Then look for me by moonlight, / Watch for me by moonlight, / I'll come to thee by moonlight, though Hell should bar the way.'

2. (transitive) To prohibit.

   I couldn't get into the nightclub because I had been barred.

3. (transitive) To lock or bolt with a bar.

   bar the door

4. To imprint or paint with bars, to stripe.
   • 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 208, column 1:

     I lived in a hut in the yard. To be out of the chaos I would sometimes get into the accountant’s office. It was built of horizontal planks, and so badly put together that, as he bent over his high desk, he was barred from neck to heels with narrow strips of sunlight.

• (obstruct): block, hinder, obstruct
• (prohibit): ban, interdict, prohibit
• (lock or bolt with a bar):
• See also Thesaurus:hinder

• → Esperanto: bari

bar

1. Except, other than, besides.

   Synonyms: apart from, barring, except for, excepting, excluding, other than, save; see also Thesaurus:except

   He invited everyone to his wedding bar his ex-wife.

   • 1936, F.J. Thwaites, chapter I, in The Redemption, Sydney: H. John Edwards, page 5:

     "I might be a fool," the younger man admitted quietly, "even an idiot, but there's not a person living, bar you, who possess the courage to call me a weakling, Sir."

   • 2019 October, Philip Sherratt, “Midland Main Line upgrade presses on”, in Modern Railways, page 62:

     These see the overhead wires installed on all bar the slow lines between Bedford and Wellingborough by next May, with the remaining section completed by August, when the full programme is due to be completed.

2. (horse racing) Denotes the minimum odds offered on other horses not mentioned by name.

   Leg At Each Corner is at 3/1, Lost My Shirt 5/1, and it's 10/1 bar.

• bar none
• all over bar the shouting

• William Dwight Whitney and Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1914), “bar”, in The Century Dictionary: An Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language, revised edition, volumes I (A–C), New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC, page 446.

Borrowed from Ancient Greek βάρος (báros, “weight”), coined circa 1900.

bar (plural bars)

1. A non-SI unit of pressure equal to 100,000 pascals, approximately equal to atmospheric pressure at sea level.

• ㍴

• isobar

• Bar (unit) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Bar in the 1920 edition of Encyclopedia Americana.

• ABR, ARB, Arb., RBA, Rab, abr., arb, bra

• IPA^(key): /ˈbʌɾ/
• Hyphenation: bar

bár m (plural baritté f)

1. night
2. age

• bartikimbir
• bartikimbiró

• E. M. Parker, R. J. Hayward (1985) “bar”, in An Afar-English-French dictionary (with Grammatical Notes in English), University of London, →ISBN
• Mohamed Hassan Kamil (2015) L’afar: description grammaticale d’une langue couchitique (Djibouti, Erythrée et Ethiopie)‎, Paris: Université Sorbonne Paris Cité (doctoral thesis)

From Dutch bar.

• IPA^(key): [bɑɾ]

• Audio

  (file)

bar (attributive barre, comparative barder, superlative barste)

1. barren

• 2007. The UCLA Phonetics Lab Archive. Los Angeles, CA: UCLA Department of Linguistics.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbaɾ/
• Rhymes: -aɾ

Uncertain. Possibly:

1. From Proto-Indo-European *bʰers- (“tip, point”), whence also Latin far (“emmer, spelt”), Proto-Germanic *baraz (“barley”) and Proto-Slavic *boršьno (“flour”).[1][2]
2. Akin to Ancient Greek φάρμακον (phármakon, “drug, medicine”), from a tentative common Proto-Indo-European root *bʰer- (“cure with herbs”).[3][4]
3. From Proto-Indo-European *bʰewH- (“to grow”), whence also Ancient Greek φυτόν (phutón, “plant”), Old Armenian բոյս (boys, “plant”).[5]

Sense 4 is likely a semantic loan from English weed, French herbe or Italian erba.

bar m (plural barëra)

1. grass
2. meadow, grassfield

   Synonym: lëndinë

3. (figurative) tasteless food

bar m (indefinite barna)

1. medicine, medication, herb

   Synonym: ilaç

2. poison (for insects or other animals)
3. (figurative) solution (for a difficult situation)
4. (colloquial) weed, marijuana

• Bardhi, F. (1635) Dictionarium Latino Epiroticum (overall work in Latin and Albanian), page 53: “magnes — aste gna baar ghi hiec becurine vetehei”
• Jungg, G. (1895) “baar”, in Fialuur i voghel sccȣp e ltinisct [Small Albanian–Italian dictionary], page 3*
• “bar i”, in FGJSSH: Fjalor i gjuhës së sotme shqipe [Dictionary of the modern Albanian language]‎ (in Albanian), 1980, pages 95–98
• “bar ii”, in FGJSSH: Fjalor i gjuhës së sotme shqipe [Dictionary of the modern Albanian language]‎ (in Albanian), 1980, page 98

Internationalism, ultimately from English bar.

bar m (plural bare)

1. bar (place serving drinks)

• “bar iii”, in FGJSSH: Fjalor i gjuhës së sotme shqipe [Dictionary of the modern Albanian language]‎ (in Albanian), 1980, page 98

Internationalism, compare German Bar, French bar, English bar, ultimately from Ancient Greek βάρος (báros).

bar m (plural barë)

1. (physics) bar (unit of pressure)

• “bar iv”, in FGJSSH: Fjalor i gjuhës së sotme shqipe [Dictionary of the modern Albanian language]‎ (in Albanian), 1980, page 98

From Persian بار.

bar (definite accusative barı, plural barlar)

1. fruit

   Synonym: meyvə

2. crop, harvest, yield

   Synonym: məhsul

3. (figurative) fruit (an end result, effect, or consequence)

   Synonym: bəhrə

4. (archaic) burden

   Synonym: yük

Ultimately from English bar.

bar (definite accusative barı, plural barlar)

1. bar (a business selling alcoholic drinks)

Internationalism; ultimately from French bar, from Ancient Greek βάρος (báros).

bar

1. (meteorology) bar (unit of pressure)

• “bar” in Obastan.com.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Valencian) [ˈbar]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [ˈbar], [ˈba]

Borrowed from English bar.

bar m (plural bars)

1. bar (establishment where alcohol is served)

Borrowed from Ancient Greek βάρος (báros, “weight”).

bar m (plural bars)

1. bar (unit of measure)

Variant of archaic bare, from Old Catalan baare, derived from the nominative case of baador, a variant of bausador (whence Catalan bausador), borrowed from Old Occitan; of uncertain origin but probably related to German böse (“evil”).[1]

bar m or f (masculine and feminine plural bars)

1. (obsolete) traitorous

bar m or f by sense (plural bars)

1. (obsolete) traitor

• biar (Luserna)

From Middle High German wir, from Old High German wir, from Proto-West Germanic *wiʀ, from Proto-Germanic *wīz.

bar

1. (Sette Comuni) we

   Synonym: bandare

   Bar zeinan bèllase. ― We are Italians.

   Bar zeinda. ― We are here.

   Bar habanze galummet. ― We took them.

• “bar” in Martalar, Umberto Martello, Bellotto, Alfonso (1974) Dizionario della lingua Cimbra dei Sette Communi vicentini, 1st edition, Roana, Italy: Instituto di Cultura Cimbra A. Dal Pozzo

From Proto-Turkic *bār.

bar

1. there is, there are, indicates existence or possession

   Antonym: yoq

bar

1. second-person singular imperative of barmaq (“to go, to arrive”)

• IPA^(key): /bar/

Borrowed from English bar.

bar m inan

1. bar (a business selling beverages)
2. bar (the counter of such a premises)
3. bar (a cabinet used to store alcoholic drinks in a private house or a hotel room)

Borrowing from modern European languages, originally coined based on Ancient Greek βάρος (báros, “weight”).

bar m

1. bar, a non-SI unit of pressure equal to 100,000 pascals

• bar in Příruční slovník jazyka českého, 1935–1957
• bar in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého, 1960–1971, 1989

From Latin bibere.

bar (second-person plural present baite)

1. to drink

• IPA^(key): /ˈbaːˀr/, [ˈb̥ɑˀ]
• Rhymes: -aːˀr

From Old Danish bar, Old West Norse berr (with ʀ-umlaut), from Proto-Germanic *bazaz.

bar (neuter bart, plural and definite singular attributive bare)

1. bare, naked
2. sheer, pure

• bare
• barbenet
• barfodet
• barfrost
• barhovedet
• min bare røv

Borrowed from English bar.

bar c (singular definite baren, plural indefinite barer)

1. bar (business licensed to sell intoxicating beverages, counter of such a premises)

From Ancient Greek βάρος (báros, “weight”).

bar c (singular definite baren, plural indefinite bar)

1. bar (unit of pressure)

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

bar

1. past tense of bære

• IPA^(key): /bɑr/
• Hyphenation: Dutch
• Rhymes: -ɑr

Borrowed from English bar.

bar m (plural bars, diminutive barretje n)

1. A bar, counter, drink cabinet.
2. A bar, pub serving alcohol.

-types of establishment

• → Caribbean Javanese: bar
• → Indonesian: bar

From Old French barhaine, probably of Germanic origin, possibly Frankish *baʀ (“bare; barren”).

bar (comparative barder, superlative barst)

1. harsh, tough (used mainly with koude (“cold”), or omstandigheden (“conditions”))
2. barren, inhospitable, bare
3. crude, grim, unfriendly

• barkoud
• barslecht

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

bar

1. extremely (only in a negative sense)

From Ancient Greek βάρος (báros, “weight”), coined c. 1900.

bar

1. bar (a unit of pressure, equal to 100,000 pascals)

• kilobar
• megabar
• millibar

• isobaar

• → Indonesian: bar

• M. J. Koenen & J. Endepols, Verklarend Handwoordenboek der Nederlandse Taal (tevens Vreemde-woordentolk), Groningen, Wolters-Noordhoff, 1969 (26th edition) [Dutch dictionary in Dutch]

bar

1. first/third-person singular past of bera

   hetta bar ikki til

   this wasn’t possible

• IPA^(key): /baʁ/

• audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aʁ

From English bar. Doublet of barre.

bar m (plural bars)

1. bar (establishment)
2. bar (counter)

• bar laitier
• pilier de bar
• resto-bar

• → Romanian: bar

Of Germanic origin, from Proto-Germanic *barsaz (“perch”).

bar m (plural bars)

1. bass (fish)

• bar commun
• bar européen

• “bar”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Borrowed from English bar.

bar m (plural bares)

1. bar, coffee shop, café, pub (an establishment where refreshments and alcohol drinks are served)

Borrowed from English bar and this from Ancient Greek βάρος (báros, “weight”).

bar m (plural bares)

1. bar (unit of pressure)

• audio

  (file)

• audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aːɐ̯

From Middle High German and Old High German bar.

bar (not comparable)

1. bare

bar

1. in cash
2. pure

bar

1. [+genitive] without

   Synonyms: ohne, sonder, außer, ausschließlich

bar (invariable)

1. Obsolete form of paar (“a few, couple”).

• “bar” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “bar” in Duden online

bar

1. Romanization of 𐌱𐌰𐍂

• IPA^(key): /paːr/
• Rhymes: -aːr

Borrowed from English bar (1), from Old French barre.

bar m (genitive singular bars, nominative plural barir)

1. bar (establishment offering alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises)
2. bar (counter at which such beverages are sold or offered)
3. (by extension) a counter where a buffet or a specialized kind of food is offered

Borrowed from English bar (2), from Ancient Greek βάρος (báros, “weight”).

bar n (genitive singular bars, nominative plural bör)

1. bar (unit of pressure)

bar

1. first/third-person singular past indicative active of bera

• IPA^(key): [ˈbar]
• Hyphenation: Indonesian

From Dutch bar, from English bar, from Middle English barre, from Old French barre (“beam, bar, gate, barrier”), from Vulgar Latin *barra, of uncertain origin.

bar (first-person possessive barku, second-person possessive barmu, third-person possessive barnya)

1. bar, pub: an establishment where alcohol and sometimes other refreshments are served.

From Dutch bar, from Ancient Greek βάρος (báros, “weight”), coined c. 1900.

bar (first-person possessive barku, second-person possessive barmu, third-person possessive barnya)

1. (physics) bar: a non-SI unit of pressure equal to 100,000 pascals, approximately equal to atmospheric pressure at sea level.

• “bar” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.
• “bar” in Pusat Rujukan Persuratan Melayu | Malay Literary Reference Centre, Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 2017.

Borrowed from English bar, from Ancient Greek βάρος (báros, “weight”).

bar m (genitive singular bair, nominative plural bair)

1. bar (unit of pressure)

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “bar”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• Entries containing “bar” in New English-Irish Dictionary by Foras na Gaeilge.

Unadapted borrowing from English bar.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbar/
• Rhymes: -ar
• Hyphenation: bàr

bar m

1. bar (place serving drinks)

   C'è un bar qui vicino? ― Is there a bar nearby?

2. café
3. bar (unit of pressure)

• barista

bar

1. inflection of bārt:
   1. second/third-person singular present indicative
   2. third-person plural present indicative
   3. second-person singular imperative
2. (with the particle lai) third-person singular imperative of bārt
3. (with the particle lai) third-person plural imperative of bārt

• (phonetic) IPA^(key): [pˠɑrˠ]
• (phonemic) IPA^(key): /pˠærˠ/
• Bender phonemes: {bar}

bar

1. empty

bar

1. again
2. also
3. more

bar

1. more

bar

1. head
2. rock
3. top; tip

• Marshallese–English Online Dictionary

bar

1. (Northern) Alternative form of bor

Related to Persian بار (bâr).

• IPA^(key): /bɑːɾ/
• Hyphenation: Northern Kurdish
• Rhymes: -ɑːɾ

bar m

1. burden (a heavy load)

From Old Norse berr and Old Danish bar.

bar (neuter singular bart, definite singular and plural bare, comparative barere, indefinite superlative barest, definite superlative bareste)

1. bare, naked
   • 2014, "Ikke provosèr ham", by Inger Torill Jørgensen, eBokNorden AS →ISBN

     Han kom tettere inn til henne, la armen rundt ryggen hennes og bøyet hodet sitt ned mot hennes bare skulder, kysset den.

     He came closer to her, put his arm around her back and bowed his head down to her bare shoulder, and kissed it.

• barbeint
• barbrystet

• berr (Nynorsk)

Borrowed from English bar.

bar m (definite singular baren, indefinite plural barer, definite plural barene)

1. a bar (place where alcohol is served)
2. a bar (sandbank at the mouth of a river or harbour)

• bartender (sense 1)

From Old Norse barr.

bar n (definite singular baret, uncountable)

1. the needles of the conifers, twigs and branches of conifers

• barskog
• bartre

From Ancient Greek βάρος (báros, “weight”).

bar m (definite singular baren, indefinite plural bar, definite plural barene)

1. bar (a non-SI unit of pressure)

• millibar

bar

1. simple past of bære

• “bar” in The Bokmål Dictionary. (adjective on page 2)
• “bar_2” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).
• “bar_1” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).
• “bar_3” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).
• “bar_4” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).
• “bar_5” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

• IPA^(key): /bɑːr/