Soar or sore?
soar is a verb meaning “To fly high with little effort, like a bird”; sore is an adjective meaning “Causing pain or discomfort; painfully sensitive”. Use soar as a verb and sore as an adjective (sore is also a verb: “To mutilate the legs or feet of (a horse) in order to…”). They sound the same (/sɔː/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) sore is about 4.0 times as common as soar.
What is the difference between soar and sore?
| soar | sore | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | verb, noun | adjective, adverb, noun, verb |
| Meaning | To fly high with little effort, like a bird To mount upward on wings, or as on wings, especially by gliding while employing rising air currents The act of soaring | Causing pain or discomfort; painfully sensitive Sensitive; tender; easily pained, grieved, or vexed; very susceptible of irritation Sorely |
| Example | The pump prices soared into new heights as the strike continued | Her feet were sore from walking so far |
| Forms | soars, soaring, soared | sorer, sorest |
| Pronunciation | /sɔː/ /soː/ /soɹ/ | /sɔː/ /soɹ/ /so(ː)ɹ/ |
| In writing | 2.5 times per million words | 9.8 times per million words |
Sources: soar 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 soar and sore
soar
- 1
To fly high with little effort, like a bird
- 2
The act of soaring
- 3
To mount upward on wings, or as on wings, especially by gliding while employing rising air currents
- 4
An upward flight
- 5
To remain aloft by means of a glider or other unpowered aircraft
- 6
To rise, especially rapidly or unusually high
The pump prices soared into new heights as the strike continued
- 7
To rise in thought, spirits, or imagination; to be exalted in mood
- 8
To increase rapidly in number, volume, size, or amount
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, soar or sore?
soar appears 2.5 times per million words; sore 9.8 times per million words.
soar 2.5 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).
How many people search soar vs sore?
“soar vs sore” is searched about 2,400 times a month on Google and 30 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“sore vs soar”, “soar or sore”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.