core Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a small group of indispensable persons or things
    core group; nucleus.
    • five periodicals make up the core of their publishing program
  2. noun the center of an object
    • the ball has a titanium core
  3. noun the central part of the Earth
  4. noun the choicest or most essential or most vital part of some idea or experience
    kernel; substance; center; centre; nitty-gritty; essence; sum; meat; heart; pith; nub; heart and soul; inwardness; marrow; gist.
    • the gist of the prosecutor's argument
    • the heart and soul of the Republican Party
    • the nub of the story
  5. noun a cylindrical sample of soil or rock obtained with a hollow drill
  6. noun an organization founded by James Leonard Farmer in 1942 to work for racial equality
    Congress of Racial Equality.
  7. noun the central meaning or theme of a speech or literary work
    essence; gist; effect; burden.
  8. noun (computer science) a tiny ferrite toroid formerly used in a random access memory to store one bit of data; now superseded by semiconductor memories
    magnetic core.
    • each core has three wires passing through it, providing the means to select and detect the contents of each bit
  9. noun the chamber of a nuclear reactor containing the fissile material where the reaction takes place
  10. noun a bar of magnetic material (as soft iron) that passes through a coil and serves to increase the inductance of the coil
  11. verb remove the core or center from
    • core an apple

WordNet

Core noun
Etymology
F. corps. See Corps.
Definitions
  1. A body of individuals; an assemblage. Obs.
    He was in a core of people. Bacon.
Core noun
Etymology
Cf. Chore.
Definitions
  1. (Mining.) A miner's underground working time or shift. Raymond. ✍ The twenty-four hours are divided into three or four cores.
Core noun
Etymology
Heb. kr: cf. Gr. .
Definitions
  1. A Hebrew dry measure; a cor or homer. Num. xi. 32 (Douay version).
Core noun
Etymology
OF. cor, coer, cuer, F. cur, fr. L. cor heart. See Heart.
Definitions
  1. The heart or inner part of a thing, as of a column, wall, rope, of a boil, etc.; especially, the central part of fruit, containing the kernels or seeds; as, the core of an apple or quince.
    A fever at the core, Fatal to him who bears, to all who ever bore. Byron.
  2. The center or inner part, as of an open space; as, the core of a ssquare. Obs. Sir W. Raleigh.
  3. The most important part of a thing; the essence; as, the core of a subject.
  4. (Founding) The prtion of a mold which shapes the interior of a cylinder, tube, or other hollow casting, or which makes a hole in or through a casting; a part of the mold, made separate from and inserted in it, for shaping some part of the casting, the form of which is not determined by that of the pattern.
  5. A disorder of sheep occasioned by worms in the liver. Prov. Eng. Halliwell.
  6. (Anat.) The bony process which forms the central axis of the horns in many animals.
Core transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Cord present participle & verbal noun Coring
Definitions
  1. To take out the core or inward parts of; as, to core an apple.
    He's likee a corn upon my great toe . . . he must be cored out. Marston.
  2. To form by means of a core, as a hole in a casting.

Webster 1913