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ore

[awr, ohr]
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noun
  1. a metal-bearing mineral or rock, or a native metal, that can be mined at a profit.
  2. a mineral or natural product serving as a source of some nonmetallic substance, as sulfur.

Origin of ore

before 900; conflation of Middle English ore, Old English ōra ore, unreduced metal; and Middle English or(e) ore, metal, Old English ār brass, cognate with Old Saxon, Old High German ēr, Old Norse eir, Gothic aiz; compare Latin aes bronze, coin, money
Can be confusedoar o'er or ore

öre

[œ-ruh]
noun, plural ö·re.
  1. a bronze coin of Norway, the 100th part of a krone.
  2. a zinc or bronze coin of Denmark, the 100th part of a krone.
  3. a bronze coin of Sweden, the 100th part of a krona.
  4. a fractional currency of the Faeroe Islands, the 100th part of a krona.
Also ø·re (for defs 1, 2).

Origin of öre

1600–10; ≪ Latin aureus a gold coin
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for ores

Historical Examples

  • This will happen to all of your Earth unless the ores are given us.

    Raiders of the Universes

    Donald Wandrei

  • The ores were very generally decomposed to a depth of about 300 feet.

    Mexico

    Charles Reginald Enock

  • Other ores are converted into oxides and reduced by heating with carbon.

  • The process of extracting a metal from its ores is called the metallurgy of the metal.

  • But the greater mass of the ores we melt have a far less produce than this.

British Dictionary definitions for ores

ore

noun
  1. any naturally occurring mineral or aggregate of minerals from which economically important constituents, esp metals, can be extracted

Word Origin

Old English ār, ōra; related to Gothic aiz, Latin aes, Dutch oer

öre

noun plural öre
  1. a Scandinavian monetary unit worth one hundredth of a Swedish krona and (øre) one hundredth of a Danish and Norwegian krone
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for ores

ore

n.

12c., merger of Old English ora "ore, unworked metal" (related to ear "earth," cognate with Low German ur "iron-containing ore," Dutch oer, Old Norse aurr "gravel"); and Old English ar "brass, copper, bronze," from Proto-Germanic *ajiz- (cf. Old Norse eir "brass, copper," German ehern "brazen," Gothic aiz "bronze"), from PIE *aus- "gold" (see aureate). The two words were not fully assimilated till 17c.; what emerged has the form of ar but the meaning of ora.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
ores in Science

ore

[ôr]
  1. A naturally occurring mineral or rock from which a valuable or useful substance, especially a metal, can be extracted at a reasonable cost.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
ores in Culture

ore

In geology, a mineral that contains a commercially useful material, such as gold or uranium.

Note

Ore deposits are generally mined, and the ore is processed to recover the material.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.