bar
Pluralbars
Pluralbars
- 1
- 2The counter at which drinks are served, in a pub or bar or in a home or hotel room.
The bartender slid the glass across the bar.
They sat at the bar chatting while the bartender mixed drinks.
UsageUse at: sit at the bar, order drinks at the bar.
Similarcounter
- 3
- 4A solid, fairly rigid length of metal or wood with a uniform cross-section narrower than it is long.
Workers welded each steel bar into the frame.
The window was protected by thick iron bars.
UsageOften plural for a barrier: iron bars on a window. Behind bars means in prison.
Note
The root sense of the noun, and the root of most of the page.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- The physical bar sense belongs to the word's ancestral meaning. en.wiktionary.org
- 5To officially prevent or forbid someone or something from a place or an activity.
The committee voted to bar him from future competitions.
New rules bar visitors from entering after midnight.
UsageBar someone from a place or from + -ing: barred from the club, barred from competing.
Similarban, prohibit, exclude, forbid
Note
The noun for the order itself is a bar.
- 6A narrow strip on a phone or computer display that contains controls, information, or a typing field, as a toolbar does.
If the bar with the formatting buttons disappears, open the View menu to bring it back.
The new update moves the battery icon and the clock to a slimmer bar along the top edge.
UsageOften in compounds: search bar, address bar, menu bar.
Similartoolbar
- 7A place, or a counter, where a particular kind of food or drink is served, such as a coffee bar, snack bar, or salad bar.
We grabbed a quick lunch at the salad bar near the office.
A small bar by the entrance pours coffee, tea, and soda.
Similarcounter
Note
The pattern spreads past drinks to casual places to eat, such as a burger bar or a fish bar, and on to beauty counters such as a nail bar or a brow bar. In each case, bar suggests a counter and quick, informal service.
- 8A level of achievement regarded as a challenge to meet or exceed; a standard or expectation.
Her first album set a bar that her later records never quite reached.
Each successful product raised the bar for the entire industry.
UsageSet phrases: raise the bar, set the bar high, a low bar.
Similarstandard, benchmark, mark, level
Note
Eliot Cohen's 'that's a pretty low bar' (2020) shows the usual sting: a low bar is easy to clear, so clearing it earns little praise.
Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Eliot Cohen said “that's a pretty low bar.” theatlantic.com
- The quotation was published in 2020. theatlantic.com
- 9Lawyers considered collectively, or the legal profession; in some countries the barristers specifically, in others all lawyers.
He was called to the bar in London and began practicing as a barrister.
The bar issued a statement condemning the proposed reforms.
UsageSet phrases: called to the bar, admitted to the bar; often written the Bar.
Note
A metonym: the profession is named after a barrier rail. Students were called to the bar in the hall of their Inn of Court, and advocates pleaded at the courtroom bar. Accounts differ on which rail gave the name. Its reach varies: in some countries it means barristers only, in others every lawyer, so the bar of one jurisdiction may not match the bar of another.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- The legal profession's name is a metonym derived from a physical barrier. en.wikipedia.org
- Students were called to the bar in their Inn of Court's hall. iancpilarczyk.com
- Barristers pleaded at the courtroom bar. en.wikipedia.org
- Accounts associate the name with either the Inn's hall railing or the courtroom railing. en.wikipedia.org
- 10A long, narrow rectangle or thick line drawn or shown on a screen, used in charts, codes, and indicators of amount or strength.
The tallest bar in the graph represents last year's profit.
The thin and thick bars on the label encode a product number.
UsageCommon in bar chart and bar graph.
- 11The examination a person must pass to become licensed to practice law.
After graduating, she spent two months preparing for the bar.
Failing the bar meant he had to wait another year to practice.
UsageWith the: study for, pass or fail the bar. Passing it differs from being called to the bar.
Note
Licensing talk in the US and the Philippines. It is shorthand for the bar exam.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- The examination sense concerns legal licensing in the US and the Philippines. en.wiktionary.org
- The Philippine bar examination is a qualifying examination for admission to the legal profession. lawphil.net
- 12
- 13Used to mean 'except,' 'other than,' or 'besides.'
The whole team showed up bar the goalkeeper.
She had read every novel bar the last two.
UsageSet phrase: bar none, meaning without exception. Except is the more common word.
Similarexcept, besides, excluding, save, but
Oppositeincluding
Note
The preposition is really the verb's imperative frozen in place, which is why barring sits beside it as a near twin. It marks a single exclusion from an otherwise complete set: everyone bar his ex-wife, all bar the slow lines.
Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- The preposition bar originated as the imperative of the verb bar. en.wiktionary.org
- 14A unit of written music between two vertical lines, containing a set number of beats; a measure.
The pianist repeated the opening bar until it was perfect.
She marked the tricky bars in red pencil.
Similarmeasure
- 15A horizontal pole in sport, such as the crossbar of a goal or the pole that high jumpers and pole vaulters must clear.
The striker's header rattled the bar and went wide.
She curled the ball just under the bar for a goal.
Similarcrossbar
Note
Football commentary shortens crossbar to bar, and a shot can hit it, rattle it or go over it. Writers often tie it to the goalkeeper with a possessive. Chris Whyatt's BBC report on Chelsea 1–0 Bolton (2010) has a curling effort sent 'over Petr Cech's bar'.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- Chris Whyatt wrote the BBC report Chelsea 1–0 Bolton in 2010. en.wiktionary.org
- The report describes a curling effort going 'over Petr Cech's bar'. en.wiktionary.org
Less common meanings
- 16An addition made to a military medal that someone already holds, awarded because of a later act.
She was awarded a bar to her gallantry medal after a second rescue under fire.
Only a handful of men in the regiment had earned bars to their medals.
UsageUse to: a bar to his medal.
- 17
- 18Something that prevents or hinders something, whether an obstacle or an official ban.
His criminal record proved a bar to employment.
Language differences were no bar to their friendship.
UsageMostly a bar to + noun or -ing: a bar to progress; often denied: no bar to friendship.
Similarbarrier, obstacle, hindrance, impediment, obstruction
Note
The sense nearest the Old French 'barrier', and an old one: a character in Dryden's Aureng-Zebe asks, 'Must I new bars to my own joy create?'
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- The Old French source word barre included the meaning barrier. en.wiktionary.org
- The obstacle sense is old and occurs in John Dryden's Aureng-Zebe. gutenberg.org
- The quoted wording is exact; its speaker is the character Aureng-Zebe. gutenberg.org
- 19
- 20A vertical line across a musical staff that divides written music into sections of usually equal length.
A double bar at the end signals the close of the piece.
She drew each bar across the staff with a ruler.
Note
The stroke on the page, not the music it encloses: a line normally closes one measure and opens the next, at intervals the time signature sets. Because the same word also names the section itself, musicians often say "bar line" for the stroke when the two could be confused. Measure is a synonym only for that section, the span between the lines, not for the stroke.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- The stroke is a bar line, distinct from the musical section it marks. accesscms.asc.edu
- Bar lines normally separate measures, but can occur within a measure; incomplete measures also need not contain the full duration specified by the time signature. lilypond.org
- Bar can name the musical section, while bar line names the stroke. en.wikipedia.org
- Measure names the musical section rather than the dividing stroke. lilypond.org
- 21Lines of hip-hop lyrics, especially ones written and performed with skill.
That rapper dropped a verse full of unforgettable bars.
Every bar in the track lands with perfect timing and wordplay.
UsageOften used with have, spit, or drop: she's got bars, spit bars.
Note
Hip-hop slang grown from the musical section: a rapper's lines are counted against the beats they fill.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- The hip-hop sense developed from the musical sense of bar. ir.canterbury.ac.nz
- Rap lyrics are fitted rhythmically into musical bars. ir.canterbury.ac.nz
- 22A long ridge of sand, gravel, or silt in a river, at a harbor mouth, or off a beach, which may block boats.
The pilot guided the ship carefully over the bar into the harbor.
Breaking waves marked the dangerous bar at the river's entrance.
UsageShips cross the bar to enter a harbor; sandbank is a near synonym.
Similarsandbank, shoal, sandbar
Note
A sailor's hazard as much as a landform: ships cross the bar to enter a river or harbor, and a vessel's draft decides whether it can. John Murray's Handbook for Travellers in Russia, Poland, and Finland (1868 edition) has travelers changing to a steamer of lesser draft just to cross the bar of the river Rion.
Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- A bar can be a hazard to sailors. maritimenz.govt.nz
- Boats cross bars to enter rivers or harbors. msq.qld.gov.au
- A vessel's draft affects whether it can cross a bar safely. navcen.uscg.gov
- An 1868 edition of Handbook for Travellers in Russia, Poland, and Finland was published by John Murray. upload.wikimedia.org
- The 1868 handbook describes travelers changing to a steamer of lesser draft to cross the Rion's bar. en.wiktionary.org
- 23A unit of pressure outside the SI system, equal to 100,000 pascals and a little below sea-level atmospheric pressure.
The tank is rated to hold gas at up to two hundred bar.
Atmospheric pressure hovers around one bar at sea level.
UsageAfter a number it often stays the same: two bar, two hundred bar.
Note
It sits just under the standard atmosphere of 101,325 pascals, which is why one bar serves as handy shorthand for pressure at sea level.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- A standard atmosphere equals 101,325 pascals. en.wikipedia.org
- One bar is slightly below average sea-level atmospheric pressure. en.wikipedia.org
- 24
- 25A small, tablet-shaped dose of Xanax, typically two milligrams and scored so that it can be split into quarters.
- 26A straight stroke used in writing, such as a vertical line, the line in a fraction, or a line drawn through a letter.
- 27In mathematics, a line written over the whole-number part of a logarithm to show that only that part is negative.
- 28In physics, a line written over a particle's symbol to show its charge is reversed, marking it as the antiparticle.
- 29In programming examples, a placeholder name for an unspecified item, usually the one that comes after foo.
- 30A real or imagined boundary in a law-making chamber that only members and staff are allowed to cross.
- 31In a courtroom, the rail dividing the area for judges, lawyers, the accused and witnesses from where the public sits.
- 32The raised strip down the middle of a backgammon board, dividing its two halves, where pieces that have been hit are put.
- 33In heraldry, a narrow horizontal band across a shield, thinner than a fess.
- 34A gate in a town's walls, surviving today mainly in certain British place names.
- 35A rod used in mining or quarrying to bore holes in rock or to ram material firmly into them.
- 36A seam of rock or mineral that cuts across a vein of ore.
- 37The fortified entrance building of a castle or walled town.
- 38On each side of a horse's heel, the part of the hoof wall that turns inward toward the frog and runs into the middle of the sole.
- 39The toothless gap between a horse's front teeth and back teeth, on the lower jaw, where the bit lies.
- 40An amount of an illegal drug sold as a unit, usually about an ounce.
- 41To mark something with stripes or bands.
- 42In horse-race betting, used after a price to mean that every horse not named is offered at those odds or longer.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origins
Vulgar Latin *barra, whose origin is uncertain, gave Old French barre ("beam, bar, gate, barrier") and then Middle English barre.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Vulgar Latin *barra is of uncertain origin. en.wiktionary.org
- Old French barre derives from Vulgar Latin *barra. en.wiktionary.org
- Old French barre meant “beam, bar, gate, barrier”. en.wiktionary.org
- Middle English barre was borrowed from Old French barre. en.wiktionary.org
Medieval Latin barrare ("to bar"), made from the noun, passed through Old French barrer into Middle English barren. As a preposition, the word is properly the verb's imperative.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Medieval Latin barrare meant “to bar” and was formed from the noun. en.wiktionary.org
- The word passed through Old French barrer into Middle English barren. en.wiktionary.org
- The preposition originated as the imperative of the verb. en.wiktionary.org
Borrowed from Ancient Greek βάρος (báros, "weight") in the early 1900s. The Norwegian meteorologist Vilhelm Bjerknes introduced the modern unit, first publishing on it in 1906.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- The pressure-unit name derives from Ancient Greek βάρος, meaning "weight." en.wiktionary.org
- The pressure-unit name dates from the early 1900s. en.wiktionary.org
- Vilhelm Bjerknes was a Norwegian meteorologist who introduced the modern unit. en.wikipedia.org
- Bjerknes first published about the modern unit in 1906. en.wiktionary.org