sore
Americanadjective
-
sorer,
comparative
-
sorest
superlative
-
physically painful or sensitive, as a wound, hurt, or diseased part.
a sore arm.
- Synonyms:
- tender
-
suffering bodily pain from wounds, bruises, etc..
He is sore because of all that exercise.
-
suffering mental pain; grieved, distressed, or sorrowful.
to be sore at heart.
-
causing great mental pain, distress, or sorrow.
a sore bereavement.
- Synonyms:
- grievous, depressing, painful
-
causing very great suffering, misery, hardship, etc..
sore need.
-
Informal. annoyed; irritated; offended; angered.
He was sore because he had to wait.
-
causing annoyance or irritation.
a sore subject.
noun
-
sores
plural
-
a sore spot or place on the body.
- Synonyms:
- wound, ulcer, abscess, inflammation
-
a source or cause of grief, distress, irritation, etc.
adverb
adjective
-
(esp of a wound, injury, etc) painfully sensitive; tender
-
causing annoyance
a sore point
-
resentful; irked
he was sore that nobody believed him
-
urgent; pressing
in sore need
-
(postpositive) grieved; distressed
-
causing grief or sorrow
noun
-
a painful or sensitive wound, injury, etc
-
any cause of distress or vexation
adverb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of sore
First recorded before 900; Middle English (adjective, noun, and adverb); Old English sār; cognate with Dutch zeer, German sehr, Old Norse sārr
Explanation
A sore is a broken patch of skin — something you might put a bandage on — or it's something that gives you pain, like a sore throat, that’s red and scratchy and painful. You can have a sore and you can also be sore: if you've just ridden your bike over the Alps, you're probably pretty sore — achy and hurting all over. Maybe you've heard phrases like "Don't be sore at me, boss," from old gangster movies, meaning "don't be angry." A sore point or a sore subject is something you don't want to discuss, like the sensitive topic of your last history quiz, the one you slept through.
Vocabulary lists containing sore
Nothing But the Truth
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That Hurts! Synonyms for "Pain"
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"Sympathy" by Paul Laurence Dunbar
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman returned to the lineup Saturday after two games off to rest his sore right knee.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 12, 2026
To add injury to insult, Garrett acknowledged he was affected by a sore left knee that apparently isn’t healing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
The 21-year-old, who was in her first year at Cardiff University, believed her sore throat and flu-like symptoms were a hangover and initially "brushed it off".
From BBC ● Sep. 5, 2026
So it’s unsurprising that race is a sore spot for JD Vance, and that he’s lashing out about El-Sayed’s pointed comments.
From Salon ● Sep. 4, 2026
I climbed my sore body out of bed without disturbing Mama or Merry, and I tiptoed downstairs with a flashlight.
From Each Little Bird That Sings by Deborah Wiles
Patients also frequently dealt with stomatitis – painful swelling and sores inside the mouth – as well as diarrhea, nausea and vomiting.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 4, 2026
Cutaneous diphtheria usually causes infected sores or ulcers on exposed parts of the body which are slow to heal but rarely lead to severe illness.
From BBC ● May 26, 2026
The biotech’s experimental cancer treatment is a genetically engineered version of the Herpes Simplex Virus type 1, the same virus that causes cold sores.
From Barron's ● Apr. 10, 2026
BBC analysis of CQC data found one home rated inadequate in 2022 has not been reinspected since, despite the report highlighting residents were at risk of pressure sores, infection, dehydration and exposure to chemicals.
From BBC ● Nov. 6, 2025
They brought back a bottle of sea water, and morning and evening, my father cleaned the sores and daubed them with the salty solution.
From "Tasting the Sky" by Ibtisam Barakat
All the time, the shoulder was holding up, but getting sorer.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 14, 2015
He's a bit sore, even sorer that there's no free-kick, but fine to continue.
From The Guardian ● May 6, 2013
Bradley Beal played 21 minutes but was ineffective, scoring just two points on 0-for-5 shooting as he still recovers from a sorer lower back.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 27, 2012
He was never champion trainer but a sorer point is surely his failure to win a Classic at Epsom, where he became notorious for his bad luck.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 8, 2011
It’s not any sorer than my quads and hamstrings.
From "Keeping Pace" by Laurie Morrison
Inflation is the sorest point: Consumer prices were 3.5% higher in June than a year earlier, according to the Labor Department, versus a January 2025 inflation rate of 3%.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
The United States is the biggest loser in raw dollars, but developing countries are the sorest victims, losing 5.8 percent of their total tax revenue rather than the 2.5 percent developed nations miss.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 14, 2021
But in this sorest storm, in this chillest land, there’s hope, the thing with feathers.
From Slate ● Aug. 25, 2021
The Bruins spent Friday assessing which body parts were sorest and what to do about them.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 19, 2021
My lungs are still burning, my throat raw, and my legs and arms are the sorest they’ve ever been.
From "Hurricane Child" by Kheryn Callender
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
