core

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: kô, IPA^(key): /kɔː/
• (General American) enPR: kôr, IPA^(key): /koɹ/, [kʰo̞ɹ]

  • Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)
• Homophone: corps; caw (non-rhotic accents with the horse-hoarse merger)
• (rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /ko(ː)ɹ/
• (non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /koə/

From Middle English core, kore, coor (“apple-core, pith”), of obscure and uncertain origin. Possibly of native English origin, from Old English *cor, related to Old English *coruc, *corc (diminutive) (> Middle English cork, crok (“core of a apple or other fruit, heart of an onion”)) and Old English corn (“seed", also "grain”); or alternatively perhaps from Old French cuer (“heart”), from Latin cor (“heart”); or from Old French cors (“body”), from Latin corpus (“body”). Compare also Middle English colk, coke, coll (“the heart or centre of an apple or onion, core”), Dutch kern (“core”), German Kern (“core”). See also heart, corpse.

core (countable and uncountable, plural cores)

1. In general usage, an essential part of a thing surrounded by other essential things.
   1. The central part of a fruit, containing the kernels or seeds.

      the core of an apple or quince

   2. The heart or inner part of a physical thing.
      • 2013 March, Nancy Langston, “Mining the Boreal North”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 2, page 98:

        Reindeer are well suited to the taiga’s frigid winters. They can maintain a thermogradient between body core and the environment of up to 100 degrees, in part because of insulation provided by their fur, and in part because of counter-current vascular heat exchange systems in their legs and nasal passages.

   3. The anatomical core, muscles which bridge abdomen and thorax.
   4. The center or inner part of a space or area.
      • 1614, Walter Ralegh [i.e., Walter Raleigh], The Historie of the World […], London: […] William Stansby for Walter Burre, […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=1 to 5):

        the core of the square

2. The most important part of a thing or aggregate of things wherever located and whether of any determinate location at all; the essence.
   • 2012 May 24, Nathan Rabin, “Film: Reviews: Men In Black 3”, in The Onion AV Club:

     Jones’ sad eyes betray a pervasive pain his purposefully spare dialogue only hints at, while the perfectly cast Brolin conveys hints of playfulness and warmth while staying true to the craggy stoicism at the character’s core.

   • 2018, Clarence Green, James Lambert, “Advancing disciplinary literacy through English for academic purposes: Discipline-specific wordlists, collocations and word families for eight secondary subjects”, in Journal of English for Academic Purposes, volume 35, →DOI, page 107:

     General vocabulary is often defined as a common core of English words and operationalized as the most frequent words in a balanced and representative corpus of English.

   the core of a subject

   1. A technical term for classification of things denoting those parts of a category that are most easily or most likely understood as within it.
      1. (botany) Used to designate the main and most diverse monophyletic group within a clade or taxonomic group.
      2. (game theory) The set of feasible allocations that cannot be improved upon by a subset (a coalition) of the economy's agents.
   2. (art) A thematic aesthetic; objects related to a specific topic

      Photographs of cottagecore focuses on countrysides or forests.

3. particular parts of technical instruments or machines essential in function:
   1. (engineering, manufacturing) The portion of a mold that creates a cavity or impression within the part (casting or molded part) or that makes a hole in or through the part.

      Coordinate term: cavity

   2. (computing, informal, historical) Ellipsis of core memory.; magnetic data storage.
   3. (computer hardware) An individual computer processor, in the sense when several processors (called cores or CPU cores) are plugged together in one single integrated circuit to work as one (called a multi-core processor).

      I wanted to play a particular computer game, which required I buy a new computer, so while the game said it needed at least a dual-core processor, I wanted my computer to be a bit ahead of the curve, so I bought a quad-core.

   4. (engineering) The material between surface materials in a structured composite sandwich material.

      a floor panel with a Nomex honeycomb core

   5. (engineering, nuclear physics) The inner part of a nuclear reactor, in which the nuclear reaction takes place.
   6. (military) The central fissile portion of a fission weapon.

      In a hollow-core design, neutrons escape from the core more readily, allowing more fissile material to be used (and thus allowing for a greater yield) while still keeping the core subcritical prior to detonation.

   7. A piece of ferromagnetic material (e.g., soft iron), inside the windings of an electromagnet, that channels the magnetic field.
   8. (printing) A hollow cylindrical piece of cardboard around which a web of paper or plastic is wound.
4. Hence particular parts of a subject studied or examined by technical operations, likened by position and practical or structural robustness to kernels, cores in the most vulgar sense above.
   1. (medicine) A tiny sample of organic material obtained by means of a fine-needle biopsy.
   2. The bony process which forms the central axis of the horns in many animals.
   3. A disorder of sheep caused by worms in the liver.
      • 1750, William Ellis, Modern Husbandry or Practice of Farming:

        [the skin of the sheep] is clear from cores and jogs under the jaws.

   4. (biochemistry) The central part of a protein's structure, consisting mostly of hydrophobic amino acids.
   5. A cylindrical sample of rock or other materials obtained by core drilling.
   6. (physics) An atomic nucleus plus inner electrons (i.e., an atom, except for its valence electrons).

• (The most important part of a thing): crux, gist; See also Thesaurus:gist

• (central part of fruit): apple core
• (inner part of a physical thing): bifacial core
• (cylindrical sample): drill core

• Translingual: core eudicots, core Malvales

core (not comparable)

1. Forming the most important or essential part.
   • 2009, Greg Hayes, A Practical Guide to Business Valuations for SMEs, page 68:

     Privately held businesses may hold assets or have charges to their financial statements which are not core to their main business activity.

   • 2013 June 22, “Engineers of a different kind”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 70:

     Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. Piling debt onto companies’ balance-sheets is only a small part of what leveraged buy-outs are about, they insist. Improving the workings of the businesses they take over is just as core to their calling, if not more so. Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster.

   • 2018, Clarence Green, James Lambert, “Advancing disciplinary literacy through English for academic purposes: Discipline-specific wordlists, collocations and word families for eight secondary subjects”, in Journal of English for Academic Purposes, volume 35, →DOI, page 106:

     These lists cover important vocabulary from eight core subjects that students need to master during secondary education: Biology, Chemistry, Economics, English, Geology, History, Mathematics, and Physics.

2. (board sports) Deeply and authentically involved in the culture surrounding the sport.
   • 2015, Kara-Jane Lombard, Skateboarding: Subcultures, Sites and Shifts, page 45:

     Our interest is not in core skaters such as young males and pro skaters but the voices of those on the periphery of the subculture.

   • 2022, Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference:

     We had a segmentation strategy, where the small, independent core skate shops — the three hundred boutiques around the country who really created us — had a certain product line that was exclusive to them. […] We said to the core shops, you don't have to compete with the malls.

   • 2023, Mari Kristin Sisjord, Women in Snowboarding:

     […] which provoked resistance among the 'core' snowboarders.

core (third-person singular simple present cores, present participle coring, simple past and past participle cored)

1. To remove the core of an apple or other fruit.
2. To cut or drill through the core of (something).
   • 2020 April 1, Drachinifel, 6:52 from the start, in HMS Thunderchild - A bad day to be a Tripod‎, archived from the original on 24 September 2022:

     But the other thing to take into account is, when you look at the Katahdin and the Polyphemus, they both have their boiler plants pretty much amidships or slightly forward of amidships, which means that, in the event of a heat-lance strike on the boiler room, not only is that gonna core through the ship right at the center of mass, which is obviously bad for its continued structural stability, but the boilers going up is gonna incinerate pretty much anybody on the bridge, which is gonna leave it completely out of control, and is probably gonna break the ship clean in half right there and then, none of which really speaks to the ship's being able to continue onwards with enough momentum to take down a Martian tripod.

3. To extract a sample with a drill.

• corer
• uncore
• uncored

See corps

core (plural cores)

1. (obsolete) A body of individuals; an assemblage.
   • 1622, Francis, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban [i.e. Francis Bacon], The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh, […], London: […] W[illiam] Stansby for Matthew Lownes, and William Barret, →OCLC:

     He was in a core of people.

See chore.

core (plural cores)

1. A miner's underground working time or shift.[1]

From Hebrew כֹּר.

core (plural cores)

1. (historical units of measure) Alternative form of cor: a former Hebrew and Phoenician unit of volume.

Possibly an acronym for cash on return.

core (plural cores)

1. (automotive, machinery, aviation, marine) A deposit paid by the purchaser of a rebuilt part, to be refunded on return of a used, rebuildable part, or the returned rebuildable part itself.

From -core, ultimately from Etymology 1.

core (plural cores)

1. (neologism) An aesthetic ending in the suffix -core, such as cottagecore, normcore, etc.
   • 2021 February 5, Kaitlyn Tiffany, “Cottagecore Was Just the Beginning”, in The Atlantic‎, Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 5 February 2021:

     Some of the most popular "cores" at the moment—according to the Wiki's "trending pages" list—are cottage and goblin and trauma and angel. If the last one sounds appealing, you can participate by eating more meringues and buying a pet dove.

   • 2022 July 27, Sarah Spellings, “Core Is the New Chic”, in Vogue‎, New York, N.Y.: Condé Nast Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-05-15:

     The rise of micro-cores coincides with the rise of hyper-specific internet aesthetics. There's even an Aesthetics Wiki that chronicles all the possible cores online, including, but not limited to, bubblegumbitchcore, cottagecore, and fairycore.

   • 2022 December 23, Dylan Kelly, “Can 2023 Be the Year of "Nothingcore"?”, in Hypebeast‎, archived from the original on 2023-06-01:

     It's more than okay to let a microtrend be just that. Naming it as a "core" turns the clothing into a social media movement, and more often than not, the title is an overcomplication for rather basic color choices or fabric selections.

   • 2023 March 2, Sophie Lou Wilson, “Cluttercore: Why The 2010s Blogger Aesthetic Is Back In Style”, in Refinery29‎, archived from the original on 6 July 2023:

     The aesthetic makes a convincing case for finding joy in fashion and experimenting with personal style rather than chasing every new 'core' that comes along. It encourages real excitement about getting creative with the clothes you already have in your wardrobe and therein lies the thrill of it.

• ROCE, cero, cero-, creo, ocre

• cor, cour

From Vulgar Latin *corem m, from Latin cor n. Compare Italian cuore.

core

1. heart

   Ti son la manduleîna del mio core;

   You are the almond of my heart.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɔ.re/
• Rhymes: -ɔre
• Hyphenation: cò‧re

core

1. (regional or archaic) Alternative form of cuore
   • c. 1500, Leonardo da Vinci, “Il corpo umano”, in G. Fumagalli, editor, Leonardo Prosatore, scelta di scritti Vinciani, Milan: Albrighi, published 1915, →OCLC, page 108:

     Il core in se non è principio di vita; ma è un vaso fatto di denso muscolo, vivificato e nutrito dall’arteria e vena, come sono gli altri muscoli.

     The heart itself is not the beginning of life, but a container made of dense muscle enlivened and fed by the artery and vein, as are the other muscles.

   • 1932, “Tanto pe' cantà”, Alberto Simeoni (lyrics), Ettore Petrolini (music):

     Tanto pe' cantà, // perché me sento 'n friccico ner còre. // Tanto pe' sognà, // perché ner petto me ce naschi 'n fiore.

     Just to sing, because I hear a tingle in my heart. Just to dream, so that in my chest may be born a flower.

• c'ero, cero, cerò, creo, creò, ocre, reco, recò

core

1. ablative singular of coris

• coor, kore

Unknown; derivation from either Old French cuer (“heart”) or cors (“body”) has been suggested, though both possibilities pose serious problems.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɔːr(ə)/

core (plural cores)

1. core (centre of a fruit)
2. (rare, by extension) The middle of something.

• English: core
• Yola: core

• “cōre, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
• James A. H. Murray [et al.], editors (1884–1928), “Core, sb.¹”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), volume II (C), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 989, column 3.

From Vulgar Latin *corem m, from Latin cor n.

• (Naples) IPA^(key): [ˈkɔːrə]
• (Castelmezzano) IPA^(key): [ˈkoːrə]

core m (plural cuore)

1. heart

   T'alluntane da stu core ― You are walking away from this heart

• AIS: Sprach- und Sachatlas Italiens und der Südschweiz [Linguistic and Ethnographic Atlas of Italy and Southern Switzerland] – map 137: “il cuore” – on navigais-web.pd.istc.cnr.it
• Giacco, Giuseppe (2003) “còre”, in Schedario Napoletano

Borrowed from English core.

core m (plural cores)

1. (computer architecture) core (independent unit in a processor with several such units)

   Synonym: núcleo

core

1. inflection of corar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

• coro (Logudorese)
• coru (Campidanese)

From Vulgar Latin *corem m, from Latin cor n.

The Logudorese form reflects the replacement of earlier /-e/ with an echo vowel based on the /o/ of the preceding syllable. (Final echo vowels are common across Sardinian dialects.) The Campidanese form reflects, in addition to that, the dialect's general merger of final unstressed /o/ into /u/.

core m (plural cores) (Nuorese)

1. heart

• Wagner, Max Leopold (1960–1964) “kòre”, in Dizionario etimologico sardo, Heidelberg

From Middle English core.

• IPA^(key): /kɔː/
• Homophones: caure, car

core

1. heart

   Synonym: hearth

   • 1867, CONGRATULATORY ADDRESS IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, page 114, lines 6-7:

     wi vengem o' core t'gie oure zense o' ye gradès whilke be ee-dighte wi yer name;

     to pour forth from the strength of our hearts, our sense of the qualities which characterise your name,

   • 1867, CONGRATULATORY ADDRESS IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, page 114, lines 9-11:

     Yn ercha an aul o' while yt beeth wi gleezom o' core th' oure eyen dwytheth apan ye Vigere o'dicke Zouvereine, Wilyame ee Vourthe,

     In each and every condition it is with joy of heart that our eyes rest upon the representative of that Sovereign, William IV.,

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 114