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Could someone please elaborate for me what "gore" means, 'cause I find it a little hard to understand? Does it just mean blood caused from violence?

Also, what does it mean when combined with "blood" as in "blood and gore"?

Would "blood and gore" be natural to use in this sentence if what the detectives see are two people who have been stabbed to death?

The two detectives stepped into the apartment and saw the blood and gore.

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  • A bilingual dictionary ( a good one) would have these two words.
    – Lambie
    Commented Apr 10, 2021 at 14:43

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'Blood and gore' would be natural to describe the scene after a violent stabbing. The phrase is common and is often used to describe such scenes.

Some dictionaries, e.g. Lexico (Oxford) give the meaning of 'gore' as 'blood that has been shed, especially as a result of violence', which may seem to make 'blood and gore' redundant, although redundancy is a form of emphasis.

Some other dictionaries e.g. Collins and Cambridge, give the meaning of 'gore' as 'blood that has come from an injury and become thick', so with this meaning 'blood and gore' would mean 'recently shed and older blood from an injury or injuries'.

Gore (Lexico)
Gore (Collins Dictionary)
Gore (Cambridge Dictionary

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  • The admirable Robert W Service, in a poem, Jean Desprez, about French villagers massacred by Uhlan (Prussian) troops during World War One, writes 'they weltered in their blood'. To 'welter' is to 'lie soaked in blood', but, again, redundancy is used for emphasis. A moment only ... ready! fire! they weltered in their blood/ But there was one who gazed unseen, who heard the frenzied cries/ Who saw these men in sabots fall before their children's eyes
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Apr 10, 2021 at 14:09
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It means a messy, violent scene with blood and body parts, either human or animal. "The horror movie was full of gore" (or was "very gory" as an adjective). It can also be a verb: "The bull gored the bullfighter" (or "the bullfighter was gored by the bull"). It is often combined with "blood" to mean an exceptionally disgusting or messy scene.

"The two detectives stepped into the apartment and saw the blood and gore" sounds perfectly natural.

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