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:
By then, he was suffering from fever, chills, muscle pain, a sore throat and bleeding.
From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2026
But Hegseth is as popular in Congress as a canker sore on a first date.
From Salon ● Oct. 9, 2026
And all signs—general tiredness, a sore forearm, crow’s feet—were pointing old.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
France's online platform that allocates places in higher education, Parcoursup, is another sore point.
From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026
By the end of our training session my ears are ringing, my arms are sore, and I smell like gunpowder, but I have hit the mark three times.
From "Blood on the River" by Elisa Carbone
I was told it had healed diabetes sores, infertility, a frozen shoulder, and the common cold.
From Slate ● Sep. 22, 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
“If I lived in another country, my legs wouldn’t look like this,” she said, rolling up her pants to show the chronic sores on her calves.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 22, 2026
She added she had sores on her elbows from being on her front and was scheduled to remain in the clinic for two weeks.
From BBC ● Feb. 23, 2026
He spent the night awake, tormented by the pain of his sores.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Meanwhile, my chest is getting rawer and sorer.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 6, 2020
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
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
“Six” was on my docket in March 2020, and missing it when the pandemic shut down Broadway was one of my sorest disappointments in those first few weeks of lockdown.
From New York Times ● Dec. 8, 2021
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
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.
