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• gore
  gore

  noun

  blood that is shed, especially when clotted.
• Gore
  Gore

  noun

  Albert Arnold, Jr. Al, born 1948, U.S. politician: vice president of the U.S. 1993–2001.

gore

¹ American  

[gawr, gohr] / gɔr, goʊr /

noun

1. blood that is shed, especially when clotted.

2. murder, bloodshed, violence, etc..

   That horror movie had too much gore.

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gore ² American  

[gawr, gohr] / gɔr, goʊr /

verb (used with object)

gored, goring

1. to pierce with or as if with a horn or tusk.

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gore ³ American  

[gawr, gohr] / gɔr, goʊr /

noun

1. a triangular piece of material inserted in a garment, sail, etc., to give it greater width or a desired shape.

2. one of the panels, usually tapering or shaped, making up a garment, as a skirt.

3. a triangular tract of land, especially one lying between larger divisions.

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verb (used with object)

gored, goring

1. to make or furnish with a gore or gores.

Gore ⁴ American  

[gawr, gohr] / gɔr, goʊr /

noun

1. Albert Arnold, Jr. Al, born 1948, U.S. politician: vice president of the U.S. 1993–2001.

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Gore ⁵ American  

[gawr-ay, gohr-ay] / ˈgɔr eɪ, ˈgoʊr eɪ /

noun

1. a city in W Ethiopia.

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gore ¹ British  

/ ɡɔː /

noun

1. a tapering or triangular piece of material used in making a shaped skirt, umbrella, etc

2. a similarly shaped piece, esp of land

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verb

1. (tr) to make into or with a gore or gores

gore ² British  

/ ɡɔː /

noun

1. blood shed from a wound, esp when coagulated

2. informal killing, fighting, etc

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Gore ³ British  

/ ɡɔː /

noun

1. Al ( bert ) Jr. born 1948, US Democrat politician; vice president of the US (1993–2001); defeated in the disputed presidential election of 2000; leading environmental campaigner; shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with the Intergovernmental Panel For Climate Change

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gore ⁴ British  

/ ɡɔː /

verb

1. (tr) (of an animal, such as a bull) to pierce or stab (a person or another animal) with a horn or tusk

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Other Word Forms

• gored
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of gore¹

First recorded in before 900; Middle English gor(r)e “filth, moral filth,” Old English gor “dung, bull dung, dirt”; cognate with Dutch goor, Old High German gor “filth,” Old Norse gor “cud”

Origin of gore²

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English gor(r)en “to pierce, stab,” derivative of gōre “spear, javelin, dart,” from Old English gār spear, shaft, arrow”; see also gore ³

Origin of gore³

First recorded before 900; Middle English gor(e), gar(e) “triangular piece of land, triangular piece of cloth,” Old English gāra “triangular piece of land, corner” (cognate with German Gehre “gusset”); akin to Old English gār “spear”; see gore ² ( def. )

Explanation

Do you like horror movies? Then you probably like gore: bloody, yucky, violent action. Gore certainly includes the bloody violence in zombie movies, but it can also refer to real-life violence, especially bloodshed and murder. If you stabbed someone with a sword, you gored them. An animal with sharp horns, like a bull, can gore a person to death. Gore is also blood that's clotting in a wound. An un-bloody, unrelated meaning of gore is a triangle-shaped piece of cloth used in making umbrellas, sails, and some clothes.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

gore Gore gored goring

“It’s not all the gore and horror stuff that everything else is,” Polizzi said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026

I don’t think it’s entirely unfair to say that a large portion of the effusive response to “Obsession” has been from younger viewers getting their first taste of topical horror gore shocks.

From Salon ● Jul. 22, 2026

This is Hollywood's latest horror film - Backrooms - and it knows its audience: one more drawn to whispered horror than A-list names, monsters and gore.

From BBC ● May 29, 2026

And now, just shy of his 40th birthday, Coogler is an Oscar winner, for best original screenplay for horror period piece "Sinners," an unlikely mash-up of racial segregation, Southern blues and vampire-fueled gore.

From Barron's ● Mar. 16, 2026

When I checked the window, T. Ray was coming out of the orchard toward the house, fists balled, head plowed forward like a bull wanting to gore something.

From "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd

On the winding road southward we listened as another BBC presenter managed to get Gore Vidal on the phone.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026

A major search operation was launched after concerns were raised for a young girl in Gore Glen Woodland Park near Gorebridge at about 12:40 on Thursday.

From BBC ● Aug. 7, 2026

A spokesperson for Gore distanced him from Socolow and Pacala’s work but did not directly address the question of whether knowledge of BP’s role in the paper would have changed his opinion of their findings.

From Salon ● Jun. 26, 2026

A few months later, Greenspan found himself seated between first lady Hillary Clinton and Tipper Gore, the vice president’s wife, at the president’s first State of the Union address.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 22, 2026

Finally, Gore will counter by noting that two-thirds of the electorate prefer him to Jackson.

From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos

Five of the 57 injured are foreign nationals: two Britons, an Australian, an American and a German who was gored in his left arm.

From Barron's ● Jul. 14, 2026

They don’t really care about “the reasons” or how others were experiencing America, whose ox the past few decades was being gored.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 15, 2026

Last weekend, an 83-year-old woman from South Carolina was gored by a bison that was defending its space, park officials said.

From New York Times ● Jun. 5, 2024

Not long before that, a 25-year-old Grove City, Ohio, woman was also gored.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 19, 2023

We spent the morning talking and looking at examples of trees gored by shedding antlers and branches snapped by lumbering bodies.

From "The Marrow Thieves" by Cherie Dimaline

Monday’s incident is the second goring by a bison in the park in the last month.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2022

This would require a holistic overhaul of the educational system and the goring of many sacred cows.

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 17, 2014

Even though goring accidents are common, few result in life-threatening injuries.

From New York Times ● Jul. 9, 2014

“The inevitable result is either deficit spending or the goring of someone’s proverbial ox,” Dillon said.

From Washington Post ● Mar. 15, 2013

Out on the range, the horse had experienced everything, including a bull goring that had left a gouge in his rump.

From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand