The tarot (pronounced Taro, as in Ross Perot!) refers to a pack of seventy-two cards, used for the purpose of divination. Twenty-two of the cards are the "keys of the tarot," depicting various emblematic figures. These are assumed to be hieroglyphic symbols of esoteric meanings for Hebrew alphabetical letters.
It is most likely that the word tarot is derived from one of several languages which references a form of this word as 'checkered'. This is because the original tarot cards had diagonal lines or a checkered pattern.