One syllable: Bore.
bawr
/bɔɹ/
Bore is pronounced bawr (/bɔɹ/). It has one syllable (Bore), with the stress on "Bore". Bore is a verb meaning to make someone feel weary or uninterested through dull or tedious repetition or talk; it can also mean to drill a hole or to make a hole by drilling. In everyday use, people say a topic or person can bore you, or a machine can bore into material. The word carries a sense of tedious persistence or penetrating drilling, depending on context.
verbBore is a verb meaning to make someone feel weary or uninterested through dull or tedious repetition or talk; it can also mean to drill a hole or to make a hole by drilling. In everyday use, people say a topic or person can bore you, or a machine can bore into material. The word carries a sense of tedious persistence or penetrating drilling, depending on context.
How to Pronounce Bore
"The lecture was long and unengaging, and it began to bore the students."
"The dentist used a drill to bore a small hole for the filling."
"She tried to entertain him, but his questions only managed to bore him with their monotony."
Pronounce it as /boʊr/ in US and many other accents, with a long diphthong for the vowel and rhotic 'r' in rhotic accents. Start with a closed lip position, raise the body of the tongue toward the high back position on the first vowel portion (the 'o' sound), then glide into a near-close to mid back vowel before finalizing with a rhotacized 'r' sound. You’ll produce a smooth, one-syllable syllable: boʊr. In UK non-rhotic speech, you may hear /bɔː/ or /bɔː(ɹ)/ with a trailing r less pronounced in many contexts; in Australian, expect a more open /bɔː/ or /boː/ depending on the speaker.
Common errors: flattening the diphthong to a short vowel like /bɔr/ or /bɒ/ in US variants, and dropping the final 'r' in non-rhotic accents. Correct by maintaining the /oʊ/ diphthong for US, ensuring the tongue starts high-mid back and glides to a slightly higher back position; keep the /r/ alveolar approximant without a vowel after it in rhotic accents. Also avoid pronouncing it as /bɔɝ/ or adding an unnecessary vowel after /r/ in American speech; end with a clean rhotic /ɹ/ in rhotic accents.
US English typically renders it as /boʊr/ with a rhotic /ɹ/ at the end. UK English often uses a non-rhotic /bɔː/ or /bɔː(ɹ)/ depending on the dialect, with a longer monophthong quality than US. Australian English tends toward /boː/ or /bɔː/ with a less pronounced rhotic end; some speakers may voice a light /ɹ/ or drop it in casual speech. Notice vowel length and quality differences and the presence or absence of rhoticity.
Two challenges: the diphthong in the vowel and the /ɹ/ rhotic consonant. In American speech, the /oʊ/ diphthong can be reduced in fast speech, making the vowel sound more like /o/; the /r/ requires precise tongue positioning behind the alveolar ridge. In non-rhotic accents, the final /r/ is less audible or dropped, which can confuse learners. Mastery comes from practicing the smooth glide of /oʊ/ and the crisp alveolar /ɹ/ in connected speech.
Does 'bore' have a silent letter? No. The word is pronounced with a visible vowel sound /oʊ/ and an audible /ɹ/ in rhotic accents. The challenge is mastering the diphthong and the tongue position for the liquid /ɹ/. In rapid speech, you may hear vowel reduction where /oʊ/ becomes a shorter, closer vowel; keep the glide from a higher back position to a mid back position and finalize with a crisp /ɹ/.
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Bore comes from the Old English word boran, meaning to bore or pierce, which is related to the German bohren and Dutch boren. The root is tied to the Proto-Germanic *borōną and ultimately to a Proto-Indo-European root related to piercing or making holes. In Middle English, bore was used for piercing through material (to bore a hole) and, by extension, for tedious or tiresome activities that 'drilled' into someone's patience. The sense of causing weariness by tedious talk developed in the 17th-18th centuries as metaphorical extension from the mechanical sense of making a hole to the figurative sense of creating an unwelcome or exhaustive experience. In modern usage, bore covers both the physical action (to bore a hole) and the cognitive/emotional effect (to bore someone). The word has retained both senses, with the verb commonly used in contexts ranging from construction to social interaction. First known usage in English literature appears in Middle English texts discussing drilling or piercing, with later 확한 shift toward metaphorical weariness in the Renaissance and early modern periods, reflected in prose and stage dialogue that describe dull or uninteresting discourse as something that ‘bore’ an audience.
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💡 These words have similar meanings to "Bore" and can often be used interchangeably.
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Words that rhyme with "Bore"
-ore sounds
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