1. (

• core ,
• nucleus ,
• core_group

) a small group of indispensable persons or things; "five periodicals make up the core of their publishing program" ;

2. (

• core

) the center of an object; "the ball has a titanium core" ;

3. (

• core

) the central part of the Earth ;

4. (

• kernel ,
• substance ,
• core ,
• center ,
• centre ,
• essence ,
• gist ,
• heart ,
• heart_and_soul ,
• inwardness ,
• marrow ,
• meat ,
• nub ,
• pith ,
• sum ,
• nitty-gritty

) the choicest or most essential or most vital part of some idea or experience; "the gist of the prosecutor's argument"; "the heart and soul of the Republican Party"; "the nub of the story" ;

5. (

• core ,

) a cylindrical sample of soil or rock obtained with a hollow drill ;

6. (

• Congress_of_Racial_Equality ,
• CORE ,

) an organization founded by James Leonard Farmer in 1942 to work for racial equality ;

7. (

• effect ,
• essence ,
• burden ,
• core ,
• gist

) the central meaning or theme of a speech or literary work ;

8. (

• core ,
• magnetic_core

) (computer science) a tiny ferrite toroid formerly used in a random access memory to store one bit of data; now superseded by semiconductor memories; "each core has three wires passing through it, providing the means to select and detect the contents of each bit" ;

9. (

• core ,

) the chamber of a nuclear reactor containing the fissile material where the reaction takes place ;

10. (

• core

) a bar of magnetic material (as soft iron) that passes through a coil and serves to increase the inductance of the coil ;

1. (

• core

) remove the core or center from; "core an apple" ;