horror

Forms

Plural: horrors

Definitions

1.An intense distressing emotion of fear or repugnance.
- Their swarthy Hosts wou'd darken all our Plains, / Doubling the native Horror of the War, / And making Death more grim.
2.Intense dislike or aversion; an abhorrence.
3.A genre of fiction designed to evoke a feeling of fear and suspense.
- A well-received Johnny Fuller R & B horror called "Haunted House."
- Those who enjoy horror, stories overflowing with blood and black mystery, will be grateful to Richard Marsh for writing ‘The Beetle.’
4.Something horrible; that which excites horror.
- I saw many horrors during the war.
- Could there be stories with more horror than these?

Frequency

Overall

Uncommon· #3225

By learning goal

Everyday conversation: Rare
General reading & writing: Uncommon
Academic: Rare
Literature: Rare

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.