Saw or sore?
saw is a noun meaning “Such a tool with a toothed blade”; sore is an adjective meaning “Causing pain or discomfort; painfully sensitive”. Use saw as a noun and sore as an adjective (sore is also a noun: “An injured, infected, inflamed or diseased patch of skin”). They sound the same (/sɔː/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) saw is about 22 times as common as sore.
What is the difference between saw and sore?
| saw | sore | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, verb, interjection | adjective, adverb, noun, verb |
| Meaning | Such a tool with a toothed blade Such a tool with an abrasive coating instead of teeth To cut (something) with a saw | Causing pain or discomfort; painfully sensitive Sensitive; tender; easily pained, grieved, or vexed; very susceptible of irritation Sorely |
| Example | Meronyms: sawtooth < sawblade | Her feet were sore from walking so far |
| Forms | saws | sorer, sorest |
| Pronunciation | /sɔː/ /soː/ /sɑ/ | /sɔː/ /soɹ/ /so(ː)ɹ/ |
| In writing | 219 times per million words | 9.8 times per million words |
Sources: saw and sore in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of saw and sore
saw
- 1
Such a tool with a toothed blade
Meronyms: sawtooth < sawblade
- 2
To cut (something) with a saw
- 3
proscribedصَلَّى اللّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ (ṣallā llāhu ʕalayhi wa-sallama, “peace be upon him”)
- 4
USInitialism of squad automatic weapon or initialism of section automatic weapon, a kind of light machine gun
- 5
slangA Bahamian
- 6
Such a tool with an abrasive coating instead of teeth
- 7
To make a motion back and forth similar to cutting something with a saw
- 8
Initialism of surface acoustic wave
sore
- 1
Causing pain or discomfort; painfully sensitive
Her feet were sore from walking so far
- 2
Sorely
- 3
An injured, infected, inflamed or diseased patch of skin
They put ointment and a bandage on the sore
- 4
To mutilate the legs or feet of (a horse) in order to induce a particular gait
- 5
A young hawk or falcon in its first year
- 6
Acronym of small off-road engine
- 7
Sensitive; tender; easily pained, grieved, or vexed; very susceptible of irritation
- 8
Grief; affliction; trouble; difficulty
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, saw or sore?
saw appears 219 times per million words; sore 9.8 times per million words.
saw 219 times per million wordssore 9.8 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).