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score

SKOR/skoɹ/UKSKAW/skɔː/

Verbscores, scoring, scored

Noun pluralscores, score

36 meanings of score

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  1. 1
    get points (sport)verbtransitive or intransitive
    To gain a point, goal, or run in a game, or to get a particular mark or number of points in a test.

    The team failed to score in the opening period.

    He scored three times before the final whistle.

    UsageScore a goal, score against a team, score 85 on a test; score high on a quiz.

    Similarnet

    Oppositeconcede

  2. 2
    points earnednouncountable
    The number of points, goals, or runs gained by each player or team in a game, or the record of them.

    With ten minutes left to play, the score was still tied at two goals apiece.

    Each player's score is added up at the end of the round.

    UsageCommon phrases: keep score, the final score, what's the score?, the score is tied at two.

    Similartally, total, result, count

  3. 3
    nouncountable
    A figure assigned to rate or measure something, for instance how creditworthy someone is, how risky something is, or how good a product is.

    Lenders check your credit score before approving a mortgage.

    Each patient is given a risk score that helps doctors decide who needs testing first.

    UsageUsually in compounds: credit score, risk score.

    Similarrating

  4. 4
    test resultnouncountable
    A grade or number showing how well someone did on a test or exam.

    His score on the entrance exam earned him a scholarship.

    Teachers posted the scores outside the classroom.

    UsageA high or low score on a test; test scores.

    Similargrade, mark, result, rating

  5. 5
    achieveverbtransitive or intransitive
    To succeed in getting something wanted, such as a prize, a deal, or money won by gambling.

    After months of trying, she scored a meeting with the director.

    Persistent applicants sometimes score the roles others overlook.

    UsageCommon objects include tickets, a meeting, and a bargain: score tickets, score a meeting, score a bargain.

    Similarland, secure, get, win, obtain

    Note

    The broad 'get what you wanted' verb, and it works with or without an object. With one, people score advances, as a 1982 article in Gay Community News puts it. Without one, the older idiom score by something means to profit from it: in Somerset Maugham's The Moon and Sixpence (1919) a character admits, I've scored by it.

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • A 1982 article in Gay Community News uses score transitively with advances. en.wiktionary.org
    • Somerset Maugham wrote The Moon and Sixpence, first published in 1919. en.wikipedia.org
    • A character, Alec Carmichael, says “I've scored by it,” referring to benefiting from another man's resignation. gutenberg.org
  6. 6
    film musicnouncountable
    The music composed for a movie or play.

    The film's score won an award for best original music.

    A haunting score accompanied the play's final act.

    UsageCommon compounds: film score, original score. A soundtrack can also include existing songs.

    Similarsoundtrack, music

    Note

    In film and theater the word means music composed for the production, which sets it apart from existing songs licensed for a soundtrack. Critics describe it by its effect: The Economist in 2013 listed a thumping score among the trappings of a thriller, alongside drones and an assassin. The composer's work is named by the verb in to score a film.

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • The Economist published the cited passage in 2013. en.wiktionary.org
    • The passage lists a thumping score alongside drones and an assassin as cinematic trappings. en.wiktionary.org
  7. 7
    large numbernouncountableplural
    A great number; many or several of something.

    Scores of volunteers arrived to help with the cleanup.

    The author received scores of letters from admiring readers.

    UsageUsually scores of + plural noun: scores of letters. It means many, not exactly twenty.

    Similardozens, hundreds, lots, masses, loads

    Oppositehandful

    Note

    The arithmetic has dropped away. Nobody who reports scores of complaints expects a multiple of twenty, and the phrase works like dozens or hundreds, as a way of saying 'a lot'. Only in the singular, or after a numeral, does the exact count of twenty come back.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

  8. 8
    rateverbtransitive
    To rate or evaluate the quality of something.

    The panel scored the performances on technical skill and artistry.

    Reviewers score new restaurants across several categories.

    UsageThe mark can follow directly: critics scored it 92%. Or with an adverb: scored it highly.

    Similarrate, grade, mark, evaluate, assess

    Note

    The judge's side of scoring. Compare the test-taker's verb, where the subject is the one being judged: in this sense the person scores something, and there the person scores a result.

  9. 9
    written musicnouncountable
    The written form of a musical composition showing all instrumental and vocal parts.

    The conductor marked the score with cues for the brass section.

    Each musician followed their own part while the conductor read the full score.

    UsageThe conductor reads the full score; each player reads a part.

    Similarmusic

    Note

    The conductor's document, as opposed to the single line each player reads from a part. A score sets every instrumental and vocal line in vertical alignment, so everything sounding at one moment can be read at a glance. Full score stresses that completeness. From this page the word stretched to music written for a film and to the verb for composing it.

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • Conductors use scores, while individual performers read their own parts. en.wikipedia.org
    • A score aligns the instrumental and vocal parts vertically so simultaneous events can be read together. en.wikisource.org
    • A full score includes all instrumental and vocal parts. en.wikipedia.org
  10. 10
    nouncountable
    A wrong from the past that someone resents and still wants revenge for, used mostly in phrases like settle a score, a score to settle, and old scores.

    The new mayor insisted he was not using the investigation to settle old scores with his rivals.

    Twenty years later, she still had a score to settle with the coach who cut her from the team.

    Similargrudge

    Note

    A picture borrowed from bookkeeping: score first meant a notch cut on a tally, then a reckoning of what was owed (close to the old "debt" meaning), so a grievance is imagined as an unpaid account. That is why the verb is almost always settle, and why the person it is held against is introduced with with: a score to settle with a former partner. Outside these phrases the noun rarely carries this meaning alone.

    Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

More uses

Practice

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Origin

From Middle English "score," from Old English "scoru" (notch, tally, score), from Old Norse "skor," going back to Proto-Germanic "*skurō" (incision, tear) and ultimately Proto-Indo-European "*(s)ker-" (cut); it is related to "shear." The sense "twenty" arose from the mark drovers made on a tally for every twenty beasts passing through a tollgate.

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 7 facts