chore

/t͡ʃɔː/US/t͡ʃoɹ/

chore noun: a task, especially a regularly needed task for the upkeep of a home or similar, such as housecleaning or preparing meals.

Noun (1)

chore (plural chores)

A task, especially a regularly needed task for the upkeep of a home or similar, such as housecleaning or preparing meals.
- Before we moved in together, my partner and I divided up the chores: he cooks and vacuums, and I do the dishes and laundry.
- The children were made to do their daily chores before being allowed to play games.
Synonyms:

domesticity
A task that is difficult, unpleasant, or tediously routine.
- I used to enjoy being self-employed, but it's become a bit of a chore recently.
- Shorty after his nomination as Chief Justice was announced, it came to light that while on the Court, Fortas, a close friend of Johnson's, had performed a number of personal and political chores for him. This was a clear violation of the principle of separation of powers.1978, Richard Nixon, RN: the Memoirs of Richard Nixon, Grosset & Dunlap, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 418

Verb (1)

chore (third-person singular simple present chores, present participle choring, simple past and past participle chored)

(US, dated) To do chores.

Verb (2)

chore (third-person singular simple present chores, present participle choring, simple past and past participle chored)

(Scotland, dialectal) To steal.
- "Graham Reid's the thief. I saw him chore the sweeties. Bit naebody's gaun tae believe a spikkin boolie. ..."1996, Sheena Blackhall, Wittgenstein's Web: Scottish Short Stories, page 11
Synonyms:

steal, thieve, twoc

Noun (2)

chore (plural chores)

(obsolete) A choir or chorus.
- On every wall, and sung where e'er I walk. I number these, as being of the chorea. 1638 (date written), Benjamin Jonson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Under-woods. Consisting of Divers Poems. (please specify the poem)”, in The Workes of Benjamin Jonson. The Second Volume. […] (Second...

chore meaning in Tamil, Bengali, Telugu and Malayalam

chore in Telugu

a difficult, unpleasant, or routine task: చాకిరీ cākirī

chore in Malayalam

task, job, duty errand: ചെറിയ വീട്ടുജോലികൾ, പണി, പതിവുപണി, ഏല്പിച്ചപണി, ജോലി, ചുമതല

More languagesFewer languages

chore in Arabic: عَمَلٌ رُوتِينِيّ ʕamalun rūtīniyy

Examples of chore in a sentence

Regular chores can be appropriate for children, given age-appropriate limits on difficulty level and time on task.
He doesn't have money, but he pays rent in chores and housework.
Quit purposely drilling out the time hoping that someone else will do your chores.

All 40 example sentences with chore

Synonyms of chore

Forms of chore

Noun
plural	chores
Verb
third-person singular present	chores
present participle	choring
past participle	chored
past	chored
alternative Geordie	chor

Plural of chore: chores

Origin of chore

From earlier char, from Middle English charr, charre, cherre (“odd job, turn, occasion, business”), from Old English ċerr, ċierr (“a turn”), from ċierran (“to turn”), from Proto-Germanic *karzijaną (“to turn”), from Proto-Indo-European *gers- (“to bend, turn”). Cognate with Dutch keer (“time; turn; occasion”), German Kehre (“a turn; bend; wind; back-flip; u-turn”). Also related to Saterland Frisian kiere, käire (“to turn”), Old Saxon kērian, Old High German chēran (“to turn”) (German kehren (“to turn”), Dutch keren (“to turn”)). See also char.

Possibly derived from Romani ćor (“thief”), see also Geordie word chor.

Words formed from chore

Phrases with chore

Words that rhyme with chore

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about chore

What does chore mean?: Chore means a task, especially a regularly needed task for the upkeep of a home or similar, such as housecleaning or preparing meals.
What is chore in Tamil?: Chore in Tamil is இடைக்கால வேலை. See Chore meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is chore?: Chore can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce chore?: Chore is pronounced /t͡ʃɔː/ (UK).
What is the plural of chore?: The plural of chore is chores.

Words near chore in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: chore (page history and authors); chore (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); chore (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); chore (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-chore.wav.

Cite this entry: “chore.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/chore. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.