Definition of "czar" []

• A male monarch or emperor, especially one of the emperors who ruled Russia until the revolution of 1917. (noun)
• A person having great power; an autocrat: "the square-jawed, ruddy complacency of Jack Farrell, the czar of the Fifteenth Street police station” ( Ernest Hemingway). (noun)
• Informal An appointed official having special powers to regulate or supervise an activity: a racetrack czar; an energy czar. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The term "czar" dates back to Franklin Roosevelt's administration."
• "JOHN WALTERS, BUSH ADMINISTRATION DRUG CZAR: Well, with the title czar, you are asking for it."
• "COSTELLO: But the University of Virginia's Larry Sabato, who wrote the "Year of Obama" says the title czar is mostly to make the tough government job sound more attractive."