A jar is a rigid, cylindrical or slightly conical container, typically made of glass, ceramic, or plastic, with a wide mouth or opening that can be closed with a lid, screw cap, lug cap, cork stopper, roll-on cap, crimp-on cap, press-on cap, plastic shrink, heat sealed lidding film, an inner seal, a tamper-evident band, or other suitable means. The English word "jar" originates from the Arabic word jarra, which means an earthen pot or vessel.^[1][2]

Background

Jars can be used to hold solids too large to be removed from, or liquids too viscous to be poured through a bottle's neck; these may be foods, cosmetics, medications, or chemicals.^[3] Glass jars—among which the most popular is the mason jar—can be used for storing and preserving items as diverse as jam, pickled gherkin, other pickles, marmalade, sun-dried tomatoes, olives, jalapeño peppers, chutneys, pickled eggs, honey, and many others.^{[citation needed]}

Types

• Bell jar – typically used in scientific laboratories to produce a vacuum; also used in Victorian times for display purposes
• Cookie jar – typically ceramic or glass, common in the United States, Canada, and United Kingdom
• Killing jar – used to kill captured insects
• Leyden jar – a historical electrical capacitor
• Specimen jar – an instrument used in anatomy to preserve specimens
• Apothecary jar – historically for storage of medicines; made of ceramics or more typically in modern centuries, clear glass. Typically cylindrical or with rotationally symmetric decorative curves, sometimes with a glass disc foot separated from the main body. Modern glass versions are also used for artistic display of the contents.

Modern glass food storage jars come in a variety of shapes, all of which have a circular opening on top for screwing on a lid

^[4]

• Economy round or wide mouth jars – tall but rotund cylinder slightly rounded at the top and bottom, relatively wide with a wide mouth, commonly used for sauces like a mayonnaise
• Paragon jars – tall and narrow cylinder, commonly used for pickled foods like olives
• French square or Victorian jars – roughly a small cube
• Spice jars – small cylinder or rectangular cuboid
• Hexagon or hex jars – regular hexagonal prism
• Mason jars – moderately tall cylinder typically used in home canning, sealed with a metal lid
• Kilner jar – similar to a Mason jar but sealed with rubber
• Straight-sided jars – cylinders with no neck. Squat straight-sided jars are suitable for creams which can be scooped out.

Ancient ceramic types include

• Amphora – large, but typically holding under 50 L
• Pithos – very large, typically the size of a person and holding hundreds of liters
• canopic jar

Utility

Jars are sterilised by putting them in a pressure cooker with boiling water or an oven for a number of minutes. Glass jars are considered microwavable.^[5]

Some regions^[where?] have a legally mandated deposit refundable upon return of the jar to its retailer, after which the jar is recycled according to the SPI recycling code for the material.^[6]

Gallery

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  Preserved food in Mason jars
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  Reusable jam jar with flip-top or bail closure
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  Jar made of PLA-blend bio-flex, a bioplastic
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  Candy jar
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  Peanut butter
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  Six types of "earthenware jar" in Spain
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  Brown-glazed jar with design of three fish. Yuan Dynasty.
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  PP jar of skin cream with pump dispenser