DictionaryAI

ore

OR/oɹ/UKAW/ɔː/

Pluralores, ore

6 meanings of ore

Practice

  1. 1
    mined rocknouncountable or uncountable
    Rock or other natural material with enough metal or other useful minerals in it to be worth mining.

    The miners dug tons of gold ore out of the hill.

    Different ores give different metals when they are heated.

    UsageSay iron ore or gold ore.

    Note
  2. 2
    Swedish coinnoun
    Another spelling of öre: a small unit of Swedish money. 100 öre make one krona.

    The candy cost one krona and fifty ore.

    He found an old ten ore coin in his grandfather's desk drawer.

    UsageSay fifty ore, with no s.

    Note
  3. 3
    prepositionobsolete
    Old spelling of over: above, across, or covering something, seen mostly in old poems.
    Note

Less common meanings

  1. 4
    fine woolnounobsoletehistoricaluncountable
    A kind of fine wool, once made in the town of Leominster in Herefordshire.
    But then the ore of Lempſter / By Got is never a Sempſter; / That when he is ſpun, ore did, / Yet match him with hir thrid
    a. 1638 (date written), Ben Jonson, “For the Honour of Wales”Here, ore means a kind of fine wool.
    Note
  2. 5
    seaweednounarchaicuncountable
    Seaweed, especially seaweed that the sea has washed up on the shore.
    Note
  3. 6
    noun
    A kind of money used in England long ago, from about the 900s to the 1100s.

More uses

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Origins

Meaning 1

From two Old English words: ōra, "unworked metal", and ār, "brass, copper".

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

Meaning 5

A southern form of the word ware, meaning "seaweed".

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

Meaning 4

Possibly from ore, rock with metal in it, used as a picture of the wealth of the town of Leominster.

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

  • The wool sense possibly derives figuratively from metal-bearing ore, representing the wealth of Leominster. en.wiktionary.org