horrifying
/ˈhɔːɹɪ.faɪ.ɪŋ/adjective, verb
horrifying is spelled H-O-R-R-I-F-Y-I-N-G. The wrong spelling people search most is horrifing: about 10 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 36 of all searches for the word. Horrifying is an adjective meaning “Tending to inspire horror; that horrifies; horrific”.
How many letters and syllables are in horrifying?
| Letters | 10: H-O-R-R-I-F-Y-I-N-G |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 2.9 times per million words; the 15,798th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, horrifing, about 10 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell horrifying?
Horrifying is spelled H-O-R-R-I-F-Y-I-N-G. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 36 of the searches for horrifying in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is horrifying?
Horrifying appears 2.9 times per million words in written English, the 15,798th 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 horrifying?
- /ˈhɔːɹɪ.faɪ.ɪŋ/
Horrifying has 4 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-horrifying.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of horrifying
- more horrifying comparative
- most horrifying superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does horrifying mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Tending to inspire horror; that horrifies; horrific.
verb
- 1
present participle and gerund of horrify
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).