Tore

How to spell tore

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce tore

What does tore mean?

1. verbThe past tense of 'tear': pulled something apart or damaged it by force.

Tore in a sentence

• She tore the letter into tiny pieces and threw it away.

• The nail tore a long hole in his jacket.

Where does tore come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Tore is the simple past tense of the verb 'tear', meaning to pull something apart by force. The base verb comes from Old English 'teran', meaning 'to rip, lacerate, or pull to pieces', and it belongs to a wide Germanic family that includes Dutch 'teren' and German 'zehren'. Further back, scholars trace it to a Proto-Indo-European root 'der-', meaning 'to split or flay', the same ancient root that gives us words like 'tart' (sharp) and even the medical suffix in 'dermis'. Because 'tear' was a strong verb in Old English, it changed its vowel to form the past rather than simply adding an ending, which is why the past tense is 'tore' rather than the regular 'teared'. The spelling can trip writers up only because it sounds identical to 'tor' (a rocky hilltop) and sits close to 'tour', so the trap is matching the right meaning to the right spelling.

How the word is built

• tore (past tense of the verb 'tear', from Old English teran)