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Added 9 October 2026

soreness

noun

noun Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). More about soreness at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

The property, state, or condition of being sore; painfulness.
The salve made the soreness go away, but with the aches gone I suddenly noticed my other pains.
A lingering emotional pain resulting in bitterness or resentment.

Origin

From Middle English sornes, sornesse, sarnesse, from Old English sārnes (“bodily pain; mental pain, affliction, grief”), from Proto-West Germanic *sairanassī, equivalent to sore + -ness. Cognate with Scots sairness (“soreness”), Old Frisian sērnisse, sērnesse (“injury, lesion”), Middle Low German sêrnisse, sêrenisse (“wounding, injury, distress, need”).

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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