horror

English Online Dictionary. What means horror‎? What does horror mean?

English

Alternative forms

• horrour (UK, hypercorrect spelling or archaic)

Etymology

From Middle English horer, horrour, from Old French horror, from Latin horror (“a bristling, a shaking, trembling as with cold or fear, terror”), from horrere (“to bristle, shake, be terrified”). Displaced native Old English ōga.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, New England) IPA^(key): /ˈhɒɹ.ə/
• (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈhɔɹ.ɚ/
• • (New York City, Philadelphia) IPA^(key): /ˈhɑɹ.ɚ/
  • (some accents) IPA^(key): /ˈhɔɚ/
• Homophones: whore, hoar (some rhotic American accents with the horse–hoarse merger)
• Rhymes: -ɒɹə(ɹ), -ɔː(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: horr‧or

Noun

horror (countable and uncountable, plural horrors)

1. (countable, uncountable) An intense distressing emotion of fear or repugnance.
2. (countable, uncountable) Something horrible; that which excites horror.
3. (countable, uncountable) Intense dislike or aversion; an abhorrence.
4. (uncountable) A genre of fiction designed to evoke a feeling of fear and suspense.
   1. (countable) An individual work in this genre.
5. (countable, colloquial) A nasty or ill-behaved person; a rascal or terror.

6. (informal) An intense anxiety or a nervous depression; often the horrors.
7. (in the plural, informal) Delirium tremens.

Synonyms

• nightmare

Hypernyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Further reading

• “horror”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “horror”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “horror”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English horror.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɦɔ.rɔr/
• Hyphenation: hor‧ror

Noun

horror m (uncountable)

1. horror (genre of fiction)

Derived terms

Related terms

References

• van der Sijs, Nicoline, editor (2010), “horror”, in Etymologiebank, Meertens Institute

Galician

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin horror.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ɔˈroɾ]

Noun

horror m (plural horrores)

1. horror

   Synonyms: espanto, pavor, terror

Related terms

References

• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “horror”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “horror”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega

Hungarian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin horror.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈhorːor]
• Hyphenation: hor‧ror
• Rhymes: -or

Noun

horror (plural horrorok)

1. horror

Declension

References

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *horzōs, remodeled into a rhotic-stem. Equivalent to horreo +‎ -or.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈhor.ror/, [ˈhɔrːɔr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈor.ror/, [ˈɔrːor]

Noun

horror m (genitive horrōris); third declension

1. bristling (standing on end)
2. shaking, shivering, chill
3. dread, terror, horror

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Related terms

• horrendus
• horridus
• horribilis
• horrificus

Descendants

References

• “horror”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “horror”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "horror", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)

Old French

Alternative forms

• horrour
• horrur

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin horror, horrorem.

Noun

horror oblique singular, f (oblique plural horrors, nominative singular horror, nominative plural horrors)

1. horror or terror

Descendants

• English: horror
• Middle French: horreur
  • French: horreur

Polish

Etymology

Borrowed from English horror.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈxɔr.rɔr/
• Rhymes: -ɔrrɔr
• Syllabification: hor‧ror

Noun

horror m inan

1. (colloquial) horror (something horrible; that which excites horror)
2. horror movie

   Synonym: film grozy

3. horror (literary genre)

Declension

Further reading

• horror in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• horror in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Portuguese

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin horrōrem.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: (Portugal, São Paulo) -oɾ, (Brazil) -oʁ
• Hyphenation: hor‧ror

Noun

horror m (plural horrores)

1. horror

   Synonyms: temor, terror

Related terms

• horrendo
• hórrido
• horrífero
• horrífico
• horripilar
• horrível
• horrorizar
• horroroso

Romanian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English horror.

Adjective

horror m or f or n (indeclinable)

1. horror

Declension

Noun

horror n (plural horror)

1. horror

Declension

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin horrorem.

Cf. also the popular Old Spanish horrura, inherited from a derivative of the Latin or with a change of suffix, and taking on the meaning of "dirtiness, filth, impurity, scum"; comparable to derivatives of horridus in other Romance languages, like Italian ordo, Old French ord, French ordure, Old Catalan hòrreu, horresa, Old Occitan orre, orrezeza, Romanian urdoare.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /oˈroɾ/ [oˈroɾ]
• Rhymes: -oɾ
• Syllabification: ho‧rror

Noun

horror m (plural horrores)

1. horror; terror

   Synonyms: miedo, temor, terror

Derived terms

Related terms

References

Further reading

• “horror”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10