Meanings
plural sore points
- idiomaticAn action, belief, or state of affairs which is an enduring basis for disagreement or dissatisfaction.
It is a sore point with me, this being told what I am to do or not do by you self-constituted lords of creation.
1911 March, Jack London, chapter 6, in Adventure, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC2 more examples
The affair of the chaplaincy remained a sore point in his memory as a case in which this petty medium of Middlemarch had been too strong for him.
1871, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter XVIII, in Middlemarch […], volume I, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book II, page 337[T]he talks have touched on Iran's suspected nuclear-weapons program, its sponsorship of terrorism and other sore points.
2003 October 27, Adam Zagorin, Scott MacLeod, “So Who's Talking To Iran?”, in Time, archived from the original on 20 Jan 2011Synonyms: bone of contention, bone to pick, point of contention
Synonyms & antonyms
nounAn action, belief, or state of affairs which is an enduring basis for disagreement or dissatisfaction.
Translations
German wunder Punkt
- wunder Punktenduring basis for disagreement or dissatisfaction
Russian больно́е ме́сто
- больно́е ме́сто (bolʹnóje mésto)enduring basis for disagreement or dissatisfaction
Cite this entry
sore point. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sore%20point
“sore point.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sore%20point. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “sore point,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sore%20point.
Source: sore point on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.