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PlainSpell

sore

/soɹ/adjective, adverb, noun, verb

sore is spelled S-O-R-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 9.8 times per million words in written English, the 7,224th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “soar vs sore” about 2,400 times a month (Google, United States). As an adjective, sore means “Causing pain or discomfort; painfully sensitive” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in sore?

Letters4: S-O-R-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing9.8 times per million words; the 7,224th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone 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 sore?

Sore appears 9.8 times per million words in written English, the 7,224th 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 sore?

  • UK /sɔː/
  • US /soɹ/
  • /so(ː)ɹ/

Sore 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-sore.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with sore

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

soar vs sore2,400 G
saw vs sore0 B

Sounds like: saw, soar (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 sore?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as sore from its last stressed vowel (/oɹ/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: rose, eros, orse.

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 sore

  • sorer comparative
  • sorest superlative
  • sores plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • soring participle, present
  • sored participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does sore mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adjective

  1. 1

    Causing pain or discomfort; painfully sensitive.

    Her feet were sore from walking so far.

  2. 2

    Sensitive; tender; easily pained, grieved, or vexed; very susceptible of irritation.

  3. 3

    Dire; distressing.

    The school was in sore need of textbooks, theirs having been ruined in the flood.

  4. 4

    informalFeeling animosity towards someone; annoyed or angered.

    Joe was sore at Bob for beating him at checkers.

  5. 5

    obsoleteCriminal; wrong; evil.

adverb

  1. 1

    archaicVery, excessively, extremely (of something bad).

  2. 2

    Sorely.

noun

  1. 1

    An injured, infected, inflamed or diseased patch of skin.

    They put ointment and a bandage on the sore.

  2. 2

    Grief; affliction; trouble; difficulty.

  3. 3

    A young hawk or falcon in its first year.

  4. 4

    A young buck in its fourth year.

verb

  1. 1

    To mutilate the legs or feet of (a horse) in order to induce a particular gait.

  2. 2

    To grow sores; to be beset with skin lesions.

noun

as SORE
  1. 1

    Acronym of small off-road engine.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Sore in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchdouloureux (causing pain), pénible, désespérant (dire, distressing), plaie (injured, infected, inflamed, or diseased patch…)
Germanwund, weh, schlimm, entzündet, schmerzend (causing pain), empfindlich (sensitive; tender)
Portuguesedolorido (causing pain), chaga (injured, infected, inflamed, or diseased patch…)
Spanishdolorido (causing pain), llaga (injured, infected, inflamed, or diseased patch…)

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 sore come from?

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”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after sore