noun · verb · 16 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
ho͝ornonstandard but traditional, several locations
/hʊɚ/nonstandard but traditional, several locations
/hʊə/nonstandard but traditional, several locations
Early, Modern:ho͞or
Early, Modern:hōr
Early, Modern:/huːr/
Early, Modern:/hɔːr/
rhymes with -ɔː(ɹ)
rhymes with -ʊə(ɹ)
North-American:Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
Southern-England:Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
homophone: hoar
homophone: hoe (non-rhotic, dough–door merger)
CMU ARPABET:HH AO1 R
Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
1
noun
Meaning 1
Synonym of prostitute: a person (especially a woman) who offers sexual services for payment.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: derogatory, vulgar
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: prostitute
Antonyms: none provided
2
noun
Meaning 2
A person who is sexually promiscuous; a slut.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: derogatory, vulgar
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
3
noun
Meaning 3
A person who is unscrupulous, especially one who compromises their principles for gain.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: derogatory, vulgar
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
4
noun
Meaning 4
A person who will violate behavioral standards to achieve something desired.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: derogatory, vulgar
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
5
noun
Meaning 5
A contemptible person.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: derogatory, vulgar
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
6
verb
Meaning 6
To prostitute oneself.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: derogatory, intransitive, vulgar
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
7
verb
Meaning 7
To engage the services of a prostitute.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: derogatory, intransitive, vulgar
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
8
verb
Meaning 8
To pimp; to pander.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: derogatory, transitive, vulgar
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
9
verb
Meaning 9
To promote shamelessly.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: derogatory, transitive, vulgar
Examples
Did you see him on that chat show, whoring his new book?
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
10
verb
Meaning 10
To pursue false gods.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: derogatory, intransitive, vulgar
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
11
verb
Meaning 11
To pursue false goals.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: derogatory, intransitive, vulgar
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
12
verb
Meaning 12
To overuse something.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: derogatory, slang, transitive, vulgar
Topics: video-games
Examples
BTW, that guy whuz still an asshole - camping the BFG and whoring the quad - I usually leave BFG maps but stuck around on that one and suicided quite a bit (3 times I got to about -10 frags, then came back to 0...).
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
13
noun
Meaning 13
a woman who engages in sexual intercourse for money
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: prostitute, cocotte, harlot, bawd, tart, cyprian, fancy woman, working girl, sporting lady, lady of pleasure, woman of the street
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: woman, adult female
Narrower terms: call girl, camp follower, comfort woman, ianfu, demimondaine, streetwalker, street girl, hooker, hustler, floozy, floozie, slattern, white slave
14
verb
Meaning 14
compromise oneself for money or other gains
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
She whored herself to Hollywood
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: compromise
15
verb
Meaning 15
have unlawful sex with a whore
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: fornicate
16
verb
Meaning 16
work as a prostitute
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: work
History
Etymology
From Middle English hore, from Old English hōre, from Proto-Germanic *hōrǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *kéh2ros (“loved”), from *keh2- (“to wish; desire”). Cognate with Dutch hoer, German Hure, Old Norse hóra as well as Sanskrit चारु (cā́ru, “dear”), Latin cārus (“dear, expensive”), and Irish cara (“friend”). The unetymological spelling with wh- superficially denotes a formerly standard pronunciation with an excrescent /w/ (such as in whole), but such a form is hardly found in either commentators on Early Modern English pronunciations or records of traditional dialects (which both explicitly mention its rarity or absence), therefore leaving the spelling somewhat inexplicable. However, this may be because such an excrescent /w/ was absorbed by a following /uː/ (as in words with etymological /w/ such as whom, two) after it became established in the spelling but before our earliest orthoepic records.
Across languages
Translations
409 source translations are retained for this English entry.