What does "gore" mean?
Blood, especially that from a wound when thickened due to exposure to the air.
Gore
/ɡɔː/ name, noun, verb
name, noun, verb ·Common ·High school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: Blood, especially that from a wound when thickened due to exposure to the air.
- Grammar: gore is listed as name, noun, verb.
- Nearest alternatives: bloodshed, panel, aeroplane, airplane.
- Useful contrasts: bloodless, heal, protect.
- Usage evidence: Will Gore stand as presidential candidate?
How to use "gore"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "gore" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "gore" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "gore" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "gore" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "gore" is acting as name, noun, verb in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "bloodshed" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
Review note: Definition pages are checked for source coverage, sentence evidence, synonym support, and editorial insight before they are treated as approval-ready pages. If the evidence is too thin, the page remains available to users but is kept out of the approval-facing indexed inventory.
Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "gore", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 Blood, especially that from a wound when thickened due to exposure to the air. uncountable, usually
- 2 A triangular piece of land where roads meet.
"I have a number of these, but this gentleman up in the gore just below the arrow was traveling in the fast lane of 495."
- 3 the shedding of blood resulting in murder wordnet
- 4 A gout or mass of such blood. countable, obsolete, usually
"And I beheld the roof and the walls one gore of blood."
- 5 A triangular strip of land left over at the end of a not-fully-rectangular field. archaic, dialectal
Show 11 more definitions
- 6 a piece of cloth that is generally triangular or tapering; used in making garments or umbrellas or sails wordnet
- 7 Carnage, bloodshed, murder, violence. uncountable, usually
"The zombie scenes are reminiscent of what you might see on a show like The Walking Dead, short bursts of extreme violence and gore punctuating expository dialogue scenes where the survivors try to figure out how they’re going to get from point A to point B."
- 8 A small piece of land left unincorporated due to competing surveys or a surveying error. US
- 9 coagulated blood from a wound wordnet
- 10 Dirt, filth, often dung or mud. uncountable, usually
"As a sowe waloweth in the stynkynge gore pytte, or in the puddell."
- 11 The curved surface that lies between two close lines of longitude on a globe, or an equivalent section of a spherical or dome-shaped object in general.ᵂᵖ
- 12 A triangular or rhomboid piece of fabric, especially one forming part of a three-dimensional surface such as a sail or a skirt.
"Mind you, clothes were clothes in those days. […] Frills, ruffles, flounces, lace, complicated seams and gores: not only did they sweep the ground and have to be held up in one hand elegantly as you walked along, but they had little capes or coats or feather boas."
- 13 An elastic gusset for providing a snug fit in a shoe.
- 14 A projecting point.
- 15 A charge, delineated by two inwardly curved lines, starting respectively from the middle base corner and one of the two chief corners and meeting in the fess point.
- 16 A sign immediately adjacent to an exit from a roadway identifying it as an exit, optionally with the exit's identification number.
Verb
- 1 To cover or smear with blood. obsolete, transitive
- 2 To pierce with a horn or tusk. transitive
"The bull gored the matador."
- 3 To cut into a triangular form.
- 4 wound by piercing with a sharp or penetrating object or instrument wordnet
- 5 To pierce with anything pointed, such as a spear. obsolete, transitive
Show 3 more definitions
- 6 To provide with a gore.
"to gore an apron"
- 7 cut into gores wordnet
- 8 To needle or wound the feelings of. figuratively, intransitive, obsolete, transitive
Proper Noun
- 1 A surname.
"Al Gore was the 45th Vice-President of the United States."
- 2 A male given name transferred from the surname.
- 3 A place name:; A town in eastern Southland, New Zealand, situated on the Mataura River and named after Thomas Gore Browne.
- 4 A place name:; A town in eastern Southland, New Zealand, situated on the Mataura River and named after Thomas Gore Browne.; A territorial authority in Southland, New Zealand, that includes the town; in full, Gore District.
- 5 A place name:; A small town in Goondiwindi Region, Queensland, Australia, named after St George Richard Gore.
Show 9 more definitions
- 6 A place name:; Gore Water, a minor tributary in Scotland which flows through Gorebridge to the River South Esk.
- 7 A place name:; A rural community in Hants County, Nova Scotia, Canada, named after Charles Stephen Gore.
- 8 A place name:; A township municipality in Argenteuil Regional County Municipality, Quebec, Canada, named after Francis Gore.
- 9 A place name:; A number of places in the United States:; An unincorporated community in Chattooga County, Georgia.
- 10 A place name:; A number of places in the United States:; A township in Huron County, Michigan.
- 11 A place name:; A number of places in the United States:; An unincorporated community in Warren County, Missouri.
- 12 A place name:; A number of places in the United States:; An unincorporated community in Hocking County, Ohio.
- 13 A place name:; A number of places in the United States:; A town in Sequoyah County, Oklahoma, named after Thomas Gore.
- 14 A place name:; A number of places in the United States:; An unincorporated community in Frederick County, Virginia.
Example
"Will Gore stand as presidential candidate?"
Common questions
What is a synonym for "gore"?
Common synonyms include: bloodshed, panel, aeroplane, airplane, antibody, antigen.
How do you use "gore" in a sentence?
Will Gore stand as presidential candidate?
How do you pronounce "gore"?
Pronounced /ɡɔː/.
Etymology
Etymology 1
From Middle English gore, gor, gorre (“mud, muck”), from Old English gor (“manure, dung, filth, muck, dirt”), from Proto-West Germanic *gor, from Proto-Germanic *gurą (“half-digested stomach contents; faeces; manure”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰer- (“hot; warm”). Cognate to Old Norse gorr, gor (“intestines, (half-digested) intestinal contents, filth, dung; peat, silt-esc earth”).
Etymology 2
From Middle English goren, from gore (“gore”), ultimately from Old English gār (“spear”), from Proto-West Germanic *gaiʀ, from Proto-Germanic *gaizaz, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰoysós. Related to gar and gore (“a projecting point”).
Etymology 3
From Middle English gore (“patch (of land, fabric), clothes”), from Old English gāra, from Proto-West Germanic *gaiʀō, from Proto-Germanic *gaizô.
Etymology 4
From any of various places named Gore, from gore (“a triangular piece of land where roads meet”).