pore
/poɹ/noun, verb
pore is spelled P-O-R-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 1.9 times per million words in written English, the 20,101st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “pore vs pour” about 390 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, pore means “A tiny opening in the skin” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of pore is pores.
How many letters and syllables are in pore?
| Letters | 4: P-O-R-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.9 times per million words; the 20,101st most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is pore?
Pore appears 1.9 times per million words in written English, the 20,101st most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce pore?
- UK /pɔː(ɹ)/
- US /poɹ/
- /po(ː)ɹ/
Pore has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-pore.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with pore
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: paw, pour (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with pore?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as pore from its last stressed vowel (/oɹ/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: rope, repo, oper.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of pore
- pores plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- poring participle, present
- pored participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does pore mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A tiny opening in the skin.
I could sense the sweat dripping out of all my pores.
- 2
By extension any small opening or interstice, especially one of many, or one allowing the passage of a fluid.
the pores of a rock.
verb
- 1
To study meticulously; to go over again and again.
- 2
To meditate or reflect in a steady way.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Pore in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense a tiny opening in the skin:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does pore come from?
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”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).