pore
UK/pɔː(ɹ)//poɹ/
pore noun: a tiny opening in the skin.
Noun
pore (plural pores)
- A tiny opening in the skin.
- I could sense the sweat dripping out of all my pores.
- Synonyms:
- sweat hole
- By extension any small opening or interstice, especially one of many, or one allowing the passage of a fluid.
- the pores of a rock.
- Under certain conditions tangential sections indicate that the zoœcial walls and the intermural space are seemingly pierced by communication pores or connecting foramina.1903, Ray Smith Bassler, The Structural Features of the Bryozoan Genus Homotrypa, with Descriptions of Species from the Cincinnatian Group, page 570
Verb
pore (third-person singular simple present pores, present participle poring, simple past and past participle pored)
- To study meticulously; to go over again and again.
- Yet each foreign post day she watched for the arrival of letters - knew the postmark, and watched me as I read. I found her often poring over the articles of Greek intelligence in the newspaper.1826, [Mary Shelley], chapter X, in The Last Man. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC
- To meditate or reflect in a steady way.
pore meaning in Tamil, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada
pore in Tamil
- நுண்ணியத் துளை
pore in Bengali
- ত্বক, পাতার ছিদ্র
pore in Malayalam
- a tiny opening in the skin
- സുഷിരം suṣiraṁ
- by extension any small opening
- സുഷിരം suṣiraṁ
pore in Kannada
- ಸೂಕ್ಷ್ಮರಂಧ್ರ, ಸಣ್ಣರಂಧ್ರ, ಸಣ್ಣತೂತು, ಕಿರುತೂತು, ಆಳವಾಗಿ ಚಿಂತನೆ ಮಾಡು, ಗಹನವಾಗಿ ಯೋಚಿಸು
More languagesFewer languages
- pore in Tagalog
- kilit, kilit ng balat
- pore in Arabic
- مَسَمّ masamm
- pore in Indonesian
- pori
- pore in Vietnamese
- lỗ chân lông
Examples of pore in a sentence
- Father spends all his time in the study poring over manuscripts.
- Your open pores excrete sweat and dirt.
- Ed liked to pore through his old photographs, looking back over moments of his life quick-frozen in time.
Synonyms of pore
Forms of pore
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | pores |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | pores |
| present participle | poring |
| past participle | pored |
| past | pored |
Origin of pore
From Middle English pore, from Old French pore, from Latin porus, from Ancient Greek πόρος (póros, “passage”). Displaced native English sweat hole from Middle English swet hole, which might have been a reformation of Old English swātþȳrel (literally “sweat hole”), which competed with līcþēote (literally “body pipe”).
From Middle English poren, pouren, puren (“to gaze intently, look closely”), from Old English *pūrian, from Proto-West Germanic *pūrōn, suggested by Old English spyrian (“to investigate, examine”). Akin to Saterland Frisian puurje (“to question, investigate; pry, prod”), West Frisian poarje (“to poke, prod”), Middle Dutch poren (“to pore, look”), Dutch porren (“to poke, prod, stir, encourage, endeavour, attempt”), Low German purren (“to poke, stir”), Danish purre (“to poke, stir, rouse”), dialectal Swedish pora, pura, påra (“to work slowly and gradually, work deliberately”), Old English spor (“track, trace, vestige”). Compare also Middle English puren, piren (“to look, peer”). See peer.
Words formed from pore
- abdominal pore
- acidopore
- anal pore
- apical germ pore
- aporetic
- aporia
- aporic
- biopore
- blastopore
- colporate
- cryptopore
- dactylopore
- electropore
- gastropore
- germ pore
- gonopore
- haematomyelopore
- hemipore
- interpore
- intrapore
- isopore
- macropore
- mesopore
- micropore
- millipore
- nanopore
- nephridiopore
- nephropore
- neuropore
- nuclear pore complex
- nucleopore
- parapore
- polypore
- poration
- porefield
- poreless
- porelike
- pore space
- pore strip
- porewater
- pore water pressure
- poriferous
- porin
- porite
- poroid
- poroma
- pory
- prepore
- protopore
- sweat pore
- taste pore
- pore over
- poringly
Phrases with pore
Words that rhyme with pore
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about pore
- What does pore mean?
- Pore means a tiny opening in the skin.
- What is pore in Tamil?
- Pore in Tamil is நுண்ணியத் துளை. See Pore meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is pore?
- Pore can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce pore?
- Pore is pronounced /pɔː(ɹ)/ (UK).
- What is the plural of pore?
- The plural of pore is pores.
Words near pore in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: pore (page history and authors); pore (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pore (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pore (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). 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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-pore.ogg.
Cite this entry: “pore.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pore. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.