mars
- 1The fourth planet from the sun in the solar system, represented by the symbol ♂.
Through the backyard telescope, Mars looked like a small reddish disk.
Engineers are designing spacecraft that could one day carry astronauts to Mars.
Note
One planet seldom needs a plural, yet Marses appears whenever a writer imagines more than one. John Wyndham's Phyllis, seeing a second red point in the sky, protests that "there can't be two Marses", and Ian Watson's The Martian Inca (1977) sets the blue summer world of Cro-Magnon times beside today's red, ice-capped desert.
- 2A brand of chocolate bar with a filling of caramel and nougat.
A melted Mars bar left a sticky smear of caramel inside the glove compartment.
Fans of the chewy nougat say a Mars bar tastes best straight from the fridge.
Note
A family name, not the planet's, is on the wrapper: the bar is named after Franklin Clarence Mars, who founded the company that makes it. The brand seldom stands alone in use; it takes bar after it, a Mars bar, two Mars bars, with the plural on bar.
- 3Third-person singular simple present of mar.
One careless error mars an otherwise excellent report.
A single scandal mars his long record of public service.
Note
Only this form escapes the doubled r of marred and marring: the verb simply adds -s. The lowercase letter does real work too, because the same spelling with a capital names the planet, a proper name with nothing to spoil.
- 4The god of war in ancient Roman religion and mythology.
Roman generals offered sacrifices to Mars before leading their legions into battle.
In the old story, Vulcan catches Mars and Venus together in a hidden net.
Note
His Greek counterpart is Ares, and Greek myths often reach English under the Latin name, which is how Mars becomes Venus's lover and, with her, a parent of Harmonia. The name goes back to an older Latin form, Māvors, and it gave English both the planet and war itself, in poetry.
- 5Plural of mar.
The antique desk was sold as is, with a few mars and scratches on its top.
Inspectors noticed tiny mars in the glass but approved the window anyway.
Note
Blemishes can be counted, so the plural takes numbers and quantity words freely: a few mars in the varnish, two small mars on a lid. Because the present-tense verb is spelled the same, a number or determiner in front is the surest sign that the noun is meant.
- 6War, or war spoken of as though it were a person.
By the end of 1918, Mars had claimed millions of lives across Europe.
Rebuilding the cities that Mars had leveled took more than a generation.
Note
Personified war gets a person's verbs and appetites: in Ruth Stanley Farnam's A Nation at Bay (1918) Mars "rode upon the storm of horror and drank his fill of pain and blood", and elsewhere plague is his "inevitable companion". The capital stays because it is still a name, and the register is elevated, suited to real wars told gravely.
- 7The heraldic tincture gules (red), as named in the postmedieval custom of blazoning the arms of certain sovereigns, especially British monarchs, with planet names.
Similargules
Note
Heralds who blazoned a sovereign's arms by planets gave every tincture a planet's name: Mars for red, Sol for gold, Luna for silver, Jupiter for blue. In that style the royal arms of England read "Mars, three Lions passant guardant in Pale, Sol", which ordinary blazon gives as gules and or.
- 8Iron, the metal, in the language of alchemy and early chemistry.
The alchemist dissolved filings of Mars in strong vinegar and set the jar beside the fire.
The apothecary added a little Mars to the tonic for patients who looked pale and weak.
Note
Iron took this name because alchemy matched each metal to a planet, and the metal of swords and armor went to the one named for the Roman god of war. The name lingered in early chemistry, so an old recipe calling for Mars wants iron, not anything from the sky.
- 9A family name.
- 10Initialism of Military Auxiliary Radio System.
- 11Acronym of Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport.
- 12Abbreviation of multicast address resolution server.
- 13Alternative form of Mas.
- 14A small village in the Chernihiv region of northern Ukraine.
Showing meanings only.
mars is a form of mar
mar, verb: To damage or spoil something, making it worse or ruining it altogether. Full entry
- Spelling
- mar → mars: add -s
Use it in a sentence
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Origins
From Middle English Mars, from Latin Mārs ("god of war"), from the older Latin form Māvors.
Possibly a variant of Marrs, itself from Marr with an -s added after the Middle Ages. The Mars bar was named after Franklin Clarence Mars, who founded the company that makes these chocolate bars.