Meaning & use
tares
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“tares” is a form of “tare”. See that entry for the full set of meanings.
Meanings
nounpluralold-fashioned
Weeds that grow among grain crops, especially a kind of vetch or darnel, harming the harvest.
Grammar: Plural noun: the tares were growing among the wheat.
Patterns
- tares among the wheat
The farmer cursed the tares that had choked the young wheat.
Workers pulled tares from the barley field by hand.
Old farming books warn that tares ruin the quality of a grain harvest.
nounpluralfigurativereligion
Bad or unwelcome things or people mixed in with good ones, taken from a story in the Bible.
Grammar: Used figuratively, often in the phrase wheat and tares.
Patterns
- separate the wheat from the tares
The preacher spoke of the wheat and the tares growing together until the end.
The editor tried to separate the wheat from the tares in the pile of applications.
Every community has its tares, he said, and also its good people.
nounpluraltechnicalbusiness
The weight of an empty container or vehicle, subtracted from the total to find the weight of the goods it holds.
Grammar: Plural of tare in this specialist sense; the singular is more common.
Patterns
- allow for tares
The tares of the boxes were deducted before the price was set.
After subtracting the tares, the net weight of the rice was 480 kilograms.
The scale allows for tares when weighing different containers.
Word forms
| singular | tare |
|---|
Common combinations
- wheat and tares
- The parable of the wheat and tares is a famous one.
- tares among the wheat
- There were tares among the wheat in the north field.
- sow tares
- The enemy sowed tares in the farmer's field.
- deduct the tares
- The clerk deducted the tares before the final weight was written.
Synonyms and how they differ
- weeds
- Weeds is the general everyday word for unwanted plants, whereas tares names a particular grain weed or has Biblical overtones.
- darnel
- Darnel is one specific plant often meant by tares in the Bible; tares is the older and wider word.
- vetch
- Vetch is a botanical name for a climbing plant that can be a farm weed, so it is more exact than tares.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: tares or tears? tares or tarries?
tares vs tears
Tears (rhymes with ears) are drops from the eyes. Tares (rhymes with hairs) are weeds or container weights.
tares vs tarries
Tarries is a verb meaning waits or delays, and has no link to weeds.
Practice
The farmer spent the morning pulling ______ from his wheat field.
Choose one answer.
Tares are weeds that grow among grain. Tears sounds similar but means drops from the eyes, so it does not fit a farm job.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “tares”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.