The tare of a container is its weight when it's empty, which is important to know when you can't weigh something without putting it into something else.
Since you can't measure the weight of, say, olive oil without putting it into a container, you need to find out how much the container weighs, its tare, so you don't add that to the weight of the olive oil. The same thing goes for cargo containers, trucks, airplanes, railroad cars. In chemistry, a tare is a counterweight used on this same principle. Tare is also a kind of weedy grass that grows in grain fields or that's raised for forage.
Definitions of tare
noun
weedy annual grass often occurs in grainfields and other cultivated land; seeds sometimes considered poisonous
any of various climbing plants of the genus Vicia having pinnately compound leaves that terminate in tendrils and small variously colored flowers; includes valuable forage and soil-building plants
noun
the weight of a motor vehicle, railroad car, or aircraft without its fuel or cargo
an amount added or deducted on the basis of qualifying circumstances
noun
(chemical analysis) a counterweight used in chemical analysis; consists of an empty container that counterbalances the weight of the container holding chemicals
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