A sore is an area of skin that looks different from the normal skin around it. It has clear edges where the abnormal skin meets healthy skin. Even if someone has sores from head to toe, there will still be normal skin between each sore.
The word “sore” can describe many kinds of skin problems. These include scall, scab, swelling, emerod (a painful swelling), plague (a serious skin disease), and scar.
The King James Version also uses “sore” in a nonmedical way to mean “very” or “extremely.” For example, “Hezekiah wept sore” means “Hezekiah wept very much” (2 Kings 20:3) or “sore afraid” (Ezekiel 27:35).
See also Disease; Medicine and Medical Practice.