The elastic properties of tantalum have been investigated over the temperature range 4.2–300 K. The values of the adiabatic elastic constantsC11,C44, andCL=(1/2) (C11+C12+2C44) at 4.2 K in units of 1012dyn/cm2are, respectively, 2.70, 0.873, and 3.02. The Debye temperature was calculated from the elastic constants and found to have the value of 265 K at low temperature. The elastic constants become temperature independent at low temperatures and approach linear behavior at high temperatures. In contrast to the normal behavior of the elastic constants, nuclear acoustic resonance experiments show anomalous line broadening.