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horny

/ˈhoɹni/adjective, noun

horny is spelled H-O-R-N-Y: 5 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 6.2 times per million words in written English, the 9,735th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, horny means “Hard or bony, like an animal's horn” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in horny?

Letters5: H-O-R-N-Y
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing6.2 times per million words; the 9,735th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is horny?

Horny appears 6.2 times per million words in written English, the 9,735th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce horny?

  • UK /ˈhɔːni/
  • US /ˈhoɹni/

Horny has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-horny.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of horny

  • hornier comparative
  • horniest superlative
  • hornies plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does horny mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adjective

  1. 1

    Hard or bony, like an animal's horn.

  2. 2

    Having the hard consistency and pale colour of an animal's horn.

  3. 3

    Having horns.

  4. 4

    slangSexually aroused.

  5. 5

    slangSexually exciting; arousing.

    It's hard to find good fanart of this character because most of the drawings are super horny.

noun

  1. 1

    archaicslangA policeman.

  2. 2

    AustraliaScotlandslangA cow.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Horny in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchcorné (hard or bony), cornu (having horns), chaud, excité (sexually aroused)
Germanhornig, schwielig (hard or bony), gehörnt (having horns), geil, heiß, erregt (sexually aroused)
Portuguesecaloso, calejado, córneo (hard or bony), chifrudo (having horns), excitado, com tesão (sexually aroused)
Spanishcórneo (hard or bony), jodontón, cachondo, caliente, arrecho, excitado (sexually aroused)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does horny come from?

From Middle English horny, equivalent to horn + -y. Compare German hornig. Compare also Dutch hoornachtig, Swedish hornaktig, Old English hyrniġ (“angular”). Piecewise doublet of corny.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

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