pore
/poɹ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.28 in modern English
6
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
By extension any small opening or interstice, especially one of many, or one allowing the passage of a fluid.
verb
To study meticulously; to go over again and again.
Example Sentences
- "I could sense the sweat dripping out of all my pores."
- "the pores of a rock."
- "Under certain conditions tangential sections indicate that the zoœcial walls and the intermural space are seemingly pierced by communication pores or connecting foramina."
- "After reading White’s vitriolic language, The New York Times facetiously remarked that “Kansas is bleeding from every pore of her vocabularium. Sharp’s rifles are discharging from the well-known Emporium of White & Son, unlimited, and Bibles are closed until after election.”"
- "Yet each foreign post day she watched for the arrival of letters - knew the postmark, and watched me as I read. I found her often poring over the articles of Greek intelligence in the newspaper."
Etymology
From Middle English pore, from Old French pore, from Latin porus, from Ancient Greek πόρος (póros, “passage”). Displaced native English sweat hole from Middle English swet hole, which might have been a reformation of Old English swātþȳrel (literally “sweat hole”), which competed with līcþēote (literally “body pipe”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /poɹ/
- British English: /pɔː(ɹ)/