jar

UK/d͡ʒɑː/US/d͡ʒɑɹ/

nounB15 meanings Common in everyday speech and writing · #2,763 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: jared, jars, jarring, jarred

A jar is a glass container with a wide mouth and a lid that screws down. Jam, pickles, olives, the honey jar with a sticky ring on the shelf beneath it.

It doubles as a measure — a jar of coffee, two jars of passata — and empty ones get a second life holding paintbrushes and screws. There is a completely separate jar that is a verb: to jar something is to knock it with a sudden jolt, so you jar your elbow on a doorframe. Things jar in the mind as well, and that is the commoner use, as in a jarring detail or a colour that jars with everything else in the room. In British pubs a jar means a pint, and it comes in the plural: a few jars after work. Keep the two words apart, because the glass one and the jolt have nothing to do with each other.

Definitions of jar

1nounjarA glass container with a wide mouth and a lid, used for keeping food.B1~92%
“She twisted the lid off a jar of pickled onions.”
- Said"Save the jar; I'll use it for jam in the autumn."
- WrittenThe jars on the top shelf held things nobody had eaten in years and nobody would throw away.
- UsedSterilise the jars in a hot oven before filling them.
- ContrastA jar, not a bottle. A bottle has a narrow neck for pouring; a jar has a wide mouth for a spoon. bottle →
- Not thisA tin is not a jar. A jar is glass and opens again; a tin opens once.
- SimplyThe honey is in the jar. Open it.
Patterna jar of + noun (jam, honey, pickles) · a glass / empty jar · jar lid · open a jar
synonyms: pot
2nounamountThe amount that such a container holds.B1~2%
“The recipe needs half a jar of honey.”
3verbknockTo knock or shake something with a sudden jolt.B2~2%
“He landed badly and jarred his shoulder.”
4verbclashTo clash unpleasantly with something, or to feel wrong.B2~2%
“The bright music jarred with the empty room.”
5nounbeerA glass of beer, in informal British use.C1~2%
“They went for a few jars after the match.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 12 sentences found in the wild and placed 12 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.

jar is a container.

Remember it

JAR → the JAM JAR

Jam lives in a jar: two short words that start with the same j, one sitting inside the other.

hooks ontojam

Where it comes from

Jar arrived in Middle English as jarre from Arabic jarra, an earthen receptacle, and it took the long way round to get here, passing through Medieval Latin, Spanish jarra and French jarre. The relatives are still on southern European shelves: Italian giara, Portuguese jarra, Occitan jarro. The clay came first; the glass came much later.

Arabic
جَرَّة — earthen receptacle
Spanish
jarra
Old French
jare
Middle French
jarre — liquid measure
Medieval Latin
jarra
Middle English
jarre — jar
English, today
jar

Built from

jarro · Spanish — jug, pitcher; mug, stein
jarro · Portuguese — jug; ewer, pitcher

Middle English jarre (“jar”), from Medieval Latin jarra, or from Middle French jarre (“liquid measure”) (from Old French jare; modern French jarre (“earthenware jar”)), or from Spanish jarra, jarro (“jug, pitcher; mug, stein”), all from Arabic جَرَّة (“earthen receptacle”). The word is cognate with Italian giara (“jar; crock”), Occitan jarro, Portuguese jarra, jarro (“jug; ewer, pitcher”). The verb is derived from the noun.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in In the Kitchen, A Man Called Ove, Containers & Packaging

First appears in chapter 2 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

jar in the wild

Over the course of ancient Egyptian history, various changes occurred in the design and style of canopic jars.
Canopic jar
Though these vessels are sometimes referred to as "canopic urns" or "canopic jars", their purpose and use differ from the ancient Egyptian use.
Canopic jar
A Mason jar, also known as a canning jar, preserves jar or fruit jar, is a glass jar used in home canning to preserve food.
Mason jar
Bell jars are often used in laboratories to form and contain a vacuum.
Bell jar
Bell jars have a limited ability to create strong vacuums; vacuum chambers are available when higher performance is needed.
Bell jar

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

From Project Gutenberg, public domain. These sentences are from real books, shown to illustrate the word at work.

Related words

the jare family

jar

jar — used about once every 401 pages · #2,763 · point at the bar for the others

Definitions of jar

1nounjarA glass container with a wide mouth and a lid, used for keeping food.B1~92%

“She twisted the lid off a jar of pickled onions.”

Said"Save the jar; I'll use it for jam in the autumn."
WrittenThe jars on the top shelf held things nobody had eaten in years and nobody would throw away.
UsedSterilise the jars in a hot oven before filling them.
ContrastA jar, not a bottle. A bottle has a narrow neck for pouring; a jar has a wide mouth for a spoon. bottle →
Not thisA tin is not a jar. A jar is glass and opens again; a tin opens once.
SimplyThe honey is in the jar. Open it.

Patterna jar of + noun (jam, honey, pickles) · a glass / empty jar · jar lid · open a jar

synonyms: pot

2nounamountThe amount that such a container holds.B1~2%

“The recipe needs half a jar of honey.”

3verbknockTo knock or shake something with a sudden jolt.B2~2%

“He landed badly and jarred his shoulder.”

4verbclashTo clash unpleasantly with something, or to feel wrong.B2~2%

“The bright music jarred with the empty room.”

5nounbeerA glass of beer, in informal British use.C1~2%

“They went for a few jars after the match.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 12 sentences found in the wild and placed 12 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.

jar is a container.