core

Meanings

Noun

• The central part of a fruit, containing the kernels or seeds.
• The heart or inner part of a physical thing.
• The center or inner part of a space or area.
• The most important part of a thing; the essence.
• The portion of a mold that creates an internal cavity within a casting or that makes a hole in or through a casting.
• The bony process which forms the central axis of the horns in many animals.
• ; magnetic data storage.
• An individual computer processor, in the sense when several processors (called cores or CPU cores) are plugged together in one single integrated circuit to work as one (called a multi-core processor).
• The material between surface materials in a structured composite sandwich material.
• The inner part of a nuclear reactor, in which the nuclear reaction takes place.
• The central fissile portion of a fission weapon.
• A piece of ferromagnetic material (e.g., soft iron), inside the windings of an electromagnet, that channels the magnetic field.
• A disorder of sheep caused by worms in the liver.
• A cylindrical sample of rock or other materials obtained by core drilling.
• A tiny sample of organic material obtained by means of a fine-needle biopsy.
• The central part of a protein's structure, consisting mostly of hydrophobic amino acids.
• The set of feasible allocations that cannot be improved upon by a subset (a coalition) of the economy's agents.
• A hollow cylindrical piece of cardboard around which a web of paper or plastic is wound.
• An atomic nucleus plus inner electrons (i.e., an atom, except for its valence electrons).
• A body of individuals; an assemblage.
• A miner's underground working time or shift.
• Alternative of cor: a former Hebrew and Phoenician unit of volume.
• A deposit paid by the purchaser of a rebuilt part, to be refunded on return of a used, rebuildable part, or the returned rebuildable part itself.

Adjective

• Forming the most important or essential part.

Verb

• To remove the core of an apple or other fruit.
• To extract a sample with a drill.

Related

Narrower meaning words

• apple core
• bifacial core
• drill core

Origin

• From Middle English core, kore, coor, of uncertain origin. Possibly of native English origin (compare Old English corn, or perhaps from Old French cuer ("heart"), from Latin cor ("heart"); or from Old French cors ("body"), from Latin corpus ("body"). Compare also Middle English colk, coke, coll, Dutch kern, German Kern. See also heart, corpse.
• See corps
• See chore
• From Hebrew כֹּר
• Possibly an acronym for cash on return