horror means an intense distressing emotion of fear or repugnance. It carries an Arena rating of 1298, earned across 3 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, horror ranks #1,625 of 17,052 for Most Malleable Words, #2,621 of 17,052 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #2,820 of 17,052 for Most Ponderous Words, #4,568 of 17,052 for Most Vivid Words.
horror is pronounced /ˈhɒɹ.ə/.
Why “horror” is a great word
An intense feeling of dread, shock, or repugnance, or the thing that provokes it. From Middle English horer, horrour, from Old French horror, from Latin horror ("a bristling, shaking; terror"), from horrēre ("to bristle, shudder, be terrified"). Unlike "terror," which is the paralyzing immediacy of the lunging beast, or "disgust," the pure revulsion at the spoiled meal, horror is the slow, sickening fusion of the two. It is the hair lifting on the neck at a half-glimpsed shape, the recognition in the monster’s face of something once human, the warmth of a hand on your shoulder when you are alone—the body’s raw grammar for what defies speech.
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.
noun
- An intense distressing emotion of fear or repugnance.e.g.“Their swarthy Hosts wou'd darken all our Plains, / Doubling the native Horror of the War, / And making Death more grim.”
- Something horrible; that which excites horror.e.g.“I saw many horrors during the war.”
- Intense dislike or aversion; an abhorrence.e.g.““Mrs. Yule's chagrin and horror at what she called her son's base ingratitude knew no bounds ; at first it was even thought that she would never get over it. […] ””
- A genre of fiction designed to evoke a feeling of fear and suspense.e.g.“Those who enjoy horror, stories overflowing with blood and black mystery, will be grateful to Richard Marsh for writing ‘The Beetle.’”
- A genre of fiction designed to evoke a feeling of fear and suspense.; An individual work in this genre.
- A nasty or ill-behaved person; a rascal or terror.e.g.“The neighbour's kids are a pack of little horrors!”
- An intense anxiety or a nervous depression; often the horrors.
- Delirium tremens.e.g.“`My belief is that he had the horrors without knowin' it.'”
Words closest in meaning
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