Core

How to spell core

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce core

What does core mean?

1. nounThe central, innermost, or most essential part of something.
2. verbTo remove the central tough part, especially from a fruit.

Core in a sentence

• noun

  She tossed the apple core into the compost bin.

• verb

  Use a small knife to core the pears before baking them.

• noun

  The core of the proposal is a simple cost saving.

• verb

  A special gadget can core an apple in one quick push.

Where does core come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The origin of core is genuinely uncertain, which is unusual for so common a word. It appears in Middle English from around the 1300s, first describing the tough central part of an apple or pear, the bit you do not eat. The most attractive theory links it to the Latin cor, meaning 'heart', possibly reaching English through the Old French cuer (also 'heart'), since the core sits at the very centre of the fruit just as the heart sits at the centre of the body. Other scholars connect it to the Old French cor meaning 'horn' or to a word for the tough skin or husk of something. From the literal fruit sense the meaning broadened to mean the innermost or most essential part of anything, as in the core of an argument or the Earth's core. Because the spelling does not follow obvious rules and the word sounds identical to the military term corps, writers must simply fix the plain four-letter shape in memory.

How the word is built

• core (a single root word; no productive prefix or suffix, from Middle English core)

Words that sound like core

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• corps: A large organised branch or unit of an armed force.