Jar

How to spell jar

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce jar

What does jar mean?

1. nounA wide-mouthed cylindrical container, usually made of glass, used for storing food or liquids.
2. verbTo have a sudden harsh or unsettling effect, or to give something a physical jolt.

Jar in a sentence

• noun

  She unscrewed the lid of the jar of strawberry jam.

• verb

  The loud alarm seemed to jar everyone in the office at once.

• noun

  Loose coins were tipped into an old coffee jar on the shelf.

• verb

  A sharp pothole can jar the whole car and rattle the windows.

Where does jar come from?

Language of origin: Arabic

The everyday container sense of 'jar' arrived in English in the late 1500s from the French jarre, which in turn came from the Arabic jarrah, the word for a large earthenware vessel used to store water, oil, or wine. That trade route is the reason a humble kitchen object carries a word from the medieval Mediterranean pottery trade. The unrelated verb 'jar', meaning to make a harsh sound or to give a sudden jolt, has a separate origin: it is imitative, coined in the 1500s to echo a grating, discordant noise, much like 'jangle' or 'clash'. Over time that verb broadened from describing an unpleasant sound to describing anything that unsettles or physically shakes. The two meanings have lived side by side in English for centuries despite their different roots, and the simple three-letter spelling has stayed constant throughout.

How the word is built

• jar (single root, no affixes; a one-syllable noun and verb)