sore
/sɔː/
"sore" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sore” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #7,289 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #7,289
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Causing pain or discomfort; painfully sensitive.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sore |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /sɔː/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #7,289 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sore” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for sore is 4 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /sɔː/. Corpus data places it at rank #7,289 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for sore, with forms such as "osre", "soer", and "sorre". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "sue", "sox", "soy", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: 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 *sh₂eyro-, enlargement of *sh₂ey- (“to be fierce, … The correct English form is sore, spelled S-O-R-E.
Definition
- 1Causing pain or discomfort; painfully sensitive.
- 2Sensitive; tender; easily pained, grieved, or vexed; very susceptible of irritation.
- 3Dire; distressing.
- 4Feeling animosity towards someone; annoyed or angered.
- 5Criminal; wrong; evil.
Etymology
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 *sh₂eyro-, enlargement of *sh₂ey- (“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”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: osre,soer,sorre,sroe,ssore
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of sore - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "sore"?
What does "sore" mean?
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Using “sore”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-O-R-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /sɔː/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “sue” - see the side-by-side comparison. sore vs sue
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.