Definition
The weight of an empty container, vehicle, or piece of equipment, measured before any contents, cargo, or load are added. In aircraft weighing, tare weight refers to the weight of items used in the weighing process itself — such as chocks, jacks, or blocks resting on the scales — which must be subtracted from the scale readings to get the true aircraft weight.
Plain English
The weight of the empty container or of any extra items sitting on the scale. You subtract this from the total reading to find the actual weight of what you're measuring.
Context Anchor
Seen during aircraft weighing and weight-and-balance calculations.
Derivation
From the Arabic 'tarah,' meaning 'thing thrown away' or 'deduction,' which passed into French and English as a commercial term for the deduction made for the weight of packaging. The original sense — something subtracted — carries directly into the aviation use.
Why Pilots Care
Accurate subtraction of tare weight produces correct empty weight and center-of-gravity data required for safe flight planning and regulatory compliance.
Analogy
If you weigh food in a bowl, the bowl’s weight is not part of the food. The bowl’s weight is like tare weight: it gets subtracted so you know what the food alone weighs.
Intuition Check
Tare weight is not the aircraft’s empty weight. It is the weight of non-aircraft items that must be subtracted from the scale reading.
Example Sentence 1
Before recording the aircraft's empty weight, the technician noted the tare weight of the chocks on each scale and subtracted it from the readings.
Example Sentence 2
After subtracting the tare weight from each scale, the crew entered the true empty weight into the weight-and-balance form.