core
noun · adjective · verb
Simple meaning
The choicest or most essential or most vital part of some idea or experience.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kawrIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈkɔɹ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
The choicest or most essential or most vital part of some idea or experience
In general usage, an essential part of a thing surrounded by other essential things.
The heart or inner part of a physical thing.
The center of an object
“The ball has a titanium core.”
The central part of a fruit, containing the kernels or seeds.
The center or inner part of a space or area.
adjective
Forming the most important or essential part.
verb
To extract a sample with a drill.
Remove the core or center from
To remove the core of an apple or other fruit.
To cut or drill through the core of (something).
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner (estimated)
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The central part of a fruit, containing the kernels or seeds.
Used this way, core is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use core
- “The ball has a titanium core.”noun
- “Five periodicals make up the core of their publishing program.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Other combinations
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Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A hollow drilling bit that is the cutting part of a core drill.
A drill that removes a cylindrical core from the drill hole.
Dump of the contents of the chief registers in the CPU.
A small group of indispensable persons or things.
A computer memory consisting of an array of magnetic cores.
Remove the interior of.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.