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• ore
  ore

  noun

  a metal-bearing mineral or rock, or a native metal, that can be mined at a profit.
• öre
  öre

  noun

  a bronze coin of Norway, one 100th of a krone.
• Ore.
  Ore.

  abbreviation

  Oregon.

ore

¹ American  

[awr, ohr] / ɔr, oʊr /

noun

• ores
  plural

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.

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öre ² American  

[œ-ruh] / ˈœ rə /

Also øre

noun

• öre
  plural

1. a bronze coin of Norway, one 100th of a krone.

2. a zinc or bronze coin of Denmark, one 100th of a krone.

3. a bronze coin of Sweden, one 100th of a krona.

4. a fractional currency of the Faeroe Islands, one 100th of a krona.

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Ore. ³ American  

abbreviation

1. Oregon.

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öre ¹ British  

/ ˈørə /

noun

1. a Scandinavian monetary unit worth one hundredth of a Swedish krona and ( øre ) one hundredth of a Danish and Norwegian krone

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ore ² British  

/ ɔː /

noun

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

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ore Scientific  

/ 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.

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ore Cultural  

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

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Discover More

Ore deposits are generally mined, and the ore is processed to recover the material.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• ores
  plural
• öre
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of ore¹

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

Origin of öre²

First recorded in 1600–10; ultimately from Latin aureus “a gold coin of ancient Rome”; see aureus ( def. )

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Explanation

Ore is a rock that contains minerals like iron, gold, or lead. The seven dwarfs in the movie "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" worked mining ore. Another meaning of ore is a Swedish unit of money. The krona is made up of 100 ore. In this use, ore is usually spelled with an umlaut over the o — öre. In English, ore is most commonly used to mean a material from which valuable metals or gems can be extracted. In Old English, ora means unwrought metal and ar means bronze. Both root words are thought to have influenced this sense of ore.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

ore öre Ore. ores

Rio Tinto has previously faced criticism for destroying two sacred Aboriginal rock shelters in Pilbara which sat above tonnes of iron ore.

From BBC ● Nov. 3, 2026

Rio Tinto is ploughing millions of dollars into stopping the poisonous cane toad reaching the Pilbara region of western Australia, where the mining giant has a vast iron ore operation.

From BBC ● Nov. 3, 2026

Iron ore prices are likely to trade with a firmer bias in the near term, while remaining sensitive to shifts in demand expectations and broader market sentiment, they say.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2026

Fortescue confirmed it shipped 46.8 million metric tons of iron ore in its fiscal first quarter, but sold only 42.9 million tons over the same period.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 2026

We were within sight of where the two blast furnaces and the nine open hearths had been—where the “pig iron,” a product of iron ore, was melted into steel.

From "Drama High" by Michael Sokolove

The tax varies very much; in some of the seaport towns, which receive heavy dues, the öre, which includes parochial rates, is very low.

From Through Finland in Carts by Mrs. (Ethel) Alec-Tweedie

The anxious countryman had got quit of his candle and received his sixty-three öre, and the commercial gentlemen had set to work upon the roast hare.

From Norse Tales and Sketches by Alexander Lange Kielland

The öre coin has no distinct head or tail, so the Skipper named one side heads, and tossed.

From Three in Norway by Two of Them by Walter J. Clutterbuck

But the anxious countryman tapped Madame on the shoulder with his tallow candle; he trembled for his sixty-three öre.

From Norse Tales and Sketches by Alexander Lange Kielland

"I will give you two öre for your thoughts, if they are worth it," her father said at last.

From Gerda in Sweden by Etta Austin Blaisdell McDonald

They took pity on it, bought it and took it home to Portland, Ore. It didn’t come out of its shell for two weeks.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026

MaxBP, a Portland, Ore., company, sells thousands of pitching machines for home use each year in packages that run to $1,400.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 4, 2026

His biggest financial hit this past year was the five trips he made to Portland, Ore., which is 280 miles away from his home, for medical procedures.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 1, 2026

Moroney is slated to hit the stage again on Saturday at the Moda Center in Portland, Ore., before she travels to Seattle, Sacramento and Los Angeles over the next two weeks.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2026

Portland, Ore. A broad valley, rich, prosperous, and beautiful to look upon, is the Willamette, and a valley of many moods.

From In the Oregon Country Out-Doors in Oregon, Washington, and California Together with some Legendary Lore, and Glimpses of the Modern West in the Making by George Palmer Putnam

It’s about his obsession with “Minecraft,” the immensely popular video sandbox game that takes place in a world of 3D cubes representing raw materials such as wood, ores, stone and dirt.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026

Africa's exports to China are dominated by minerals and raw materials, such as crude oil and metallic ores.

From BBC ● Apr. 30, 2026

On a year-over-year basis, the increase was led by gold, silver and platinum-group metal ores, followed by conventional and synthetic crude oil, and cattle and calves.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 23, 2026

Valor, a new company, launched to extract critical minerals from waste and ores using electrochemical liquid-liquid extraction.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 11, 2026

Mercury was produced in large quantities because it was used to extract gold and silver from their ores, and it was widely available because it was used in medicine, particularly to treat syphilis.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

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