Slang dictionary
vore
[vawr]
What does vore mean?
Vore is a fetish involving being eaten by or eating someone or something, real or imaginary.
Where does vore come from?
Vore is a shortening of vorarephilia, joining the Latin verb vorare (“to swallow, devour”) and the Greek-based combining form philia (“having an abnormal liking for something”). Due to its length and simplicity, vore is more widespread than its source, vorarephilia.
While cannibalism is found in ancient myth and documented in some human culture, the terms vorarephilia and vore emerge at least by 1990s in internet culture. One prominent website for vore fetishists was Vor-Com, launched in 1997. Since then, the vore community has grown online, becoming a category in art, literature, and fanfiction sites alike. Eka’s Portal has been a well-known vore hub since 2005.
Due to its nature, many scenarios are physically impossible to achieve, causing vore to remain just a fantasy to enthusiasts. For example, in lots of vore art, subjects are often swallowed whole, but stay alive in the stomach of whatever swallowed them. Consumers are called “preds,” and can be humans, animals, plants, monsters, and even inanimate objects. The consumed are called “preys.” In the community, there’s sometimes a distinction made between soft and hard vore, riffing on soft- and hardcore porn. With soft vore, preys are eaten whole and are usually unharmed throughout the process. Hard vore, on the other hand, involves the prey’s flesh being ripped, chewed, or bitten, resulting in horrific injuries and often loss of life.
Examples of vore
Who uses vore?
Vore as a theme appears in art, literature, videos, and roleplaying engagements. However, the term is sometimes used for real instances of vorarephilia, notably a case in Germany in early 2000s. Psychologists often discuss the sexual fetish in terms of sadomasochism.
Vore is well-known across fandoms and has become the butt of jokes in some online spaces, with people joking about how silly and illogical it seems. Vore is sometimes used humorously for “devour,” occasionally in ridicule of vore fetishism. For example, someone could say “I’m going to vore some McDonalds.”
Many vore fetishists also identify as furries, or people who enjoy, often sexually, dressing up as animals, among other behaviors.
Note
This is not meant to be a formal definition of vore like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of vore that will help our users expand their word mastery.