sore
/soɹ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.99 in modern English
4
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
adj
Sensitive; tender; easily pained, grieved, or vexed; very susceptible of irritation.
adj
adv
Example Sentences
- "Her feet were sore from walking so far."
- "Malice and hatred are very fretting and vexatious, and apt to make our minds sore and uneasy."
- "The school was in sore need of textbooks, theirs having been ruined in the flood."
- "Joe was sore at Bob for beating him at checkers."
- "“God damn it.” He was sore as hell. He was really furious."
- "TfN is clearly very sore about last year's axing of part of HS2."
Etymology
From Middle English sor, from Old English sār (“ache, wound”, noun) and sār (“painful, grievous”, adjective), from Proto-West Germanic *sair, from Proto-Germanic *sairaz (adjective) from Proto-Indo-European *seh₂iro-, enlargement of *seh₂y- (“to be fierce, afflict”). See also Dutch zeer (“sore, ache”), Danish sår (“wound”), German sehr (“very”); also Hittite [script needed] (sāwar, “anger”), Welsh hoed (“pain”), Ancient Greek αἱμωδία (haimōdía, “sensation of having teeth on edge”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /soɹ/
- British English: /sɔː/