Tore is the past tense of the verb tear (which rhymes with “bear”). It means to rip or pull something apart with force. When you tore a piece of paper, you pulled it into pieces. When strong winds tore the roof off a house, they ripped it away violently.

The word captures forceful, often sudden separation. A runner who tore a muscle ripped the tissue inside their body. A sad character in a story might have torn up an old letter, ripping it into tiny pieces. Someone who was in a huge hurry might have torn through their homework, working so fast they barely paid attention.

You can also tear something down, like when a city tore down an old building to make room for a new one. The word works for fabric, paper, muscles, buildings, or anything that gets ripped or pulled apart with strength or speed. Notice that tore describes something that already happened: “Yesterday I tore my jacket on a fence.”