War or wore?
war is a noun meaning “Organized, large-scale, armed conflict between countries or between national…”; wore is a verb meaning “simple past of wear”. They sound the same (/wɔː/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) war is about 15 times as common as wore.
What is the difference between war and wore?
| war | wore | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, verb, prefix | phrase, verb |
| Meaning | Organized, large-scale, armed conflict between countries or between national, ethnic, or other sizeable groups, usually but not always involving active… A particular conflict of this kind To engage in conflict (may be followed by "with" to specify the foe) | |
| Example | holy war; just war; civil war | none recorded |
| Forms | wars | none |
| Pronunciation | /wɔː/ /wɔɹ/ /woɹ/ | /wɔː/ /wɔɹ/ /wo(ː)ɹ/ |
| In writing | 288 times per million words | 19 times per million words |
Sources: war and wore 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 war and wore
war
- 1
Organized, large-scale, armed conflict between countries or between national, ethnic, or other sizeable groups, usually but not always involving active engagement of military forces
holy war; just war; civil war
- 2
To engage in conflict (may be followed by "with" to specify the foe)
And they warred against the Midianites, as the Lord commanded Moses, and they slew all the males
- 3
Relating to gaining access to network resources, such as Wi-Fi, by locating and exploiting unprotected access addresses
- 4
Initialism of write after read, a kind of data hazard
- 5
A particular conflict of this kind
A second challenge will be to implement, with our allies, a plan of stability in the Balkans, so that the region's bitter ethnic problems can no longer be exploited by dictators…
- 6
To carry on, as a contest; to wage
- 7
Acronym of wins above replacement
- 8
proscribedProtracted armed conflict against irregular forces, particularly groups considered terrorists
Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated
wore
- 1
Initialism of write once, run everywhere
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, war or wore?
war appears 288 times per million words; wore 19 times per million words.
war 288 times per million wordswore 19 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).