English Word Reference Free

horrifying

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

10 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

Wiktionary

open dictionary

Access

Free

no sign-up needed

Detailed reference entry for the English word "horrifying", 10-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "horrifying" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "horrifying" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

horrifying is anEnglishadj. It means: Tending to inspire horror; that horrifies; horrific.

Compare similar words

See how horrifying compares against similar English words.

Browse all word comparisons →
Key facts for horrifying
PropertyValue
Headwordhorrifying
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdj
Letters10
Frequency rank#15,830
Misspellings tracked14
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of horrifying in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for horrifying is 10 letters long, classified as anadj. Corpus data places it at rank #15,830 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Tending to inspire horror; that horrifies; horrific.".

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 14 documented wrong-spelling variants for horrifying, with forms such as "hhorrifying", "horifying", and "horirfying". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is horrifying, spelled H-O-R-R-I-F-Y-I-N-G, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Tending to inspire horror; that horrifies; horrific.

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: hhorrifying,horifying,horirfying,horrfiying,horriffying,horrifiyng,horrifyign,horrifyingg,horrifyinng,horrifynig,horrifyying,horriyfing,hrorifying,ohrrifying

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for horrifying

Misspelling Variants of "horrifying"

hhorrifying11horifying9horirfying10horrfiying10horriffying11horrifiyng10horrifyign10horrifyingg11
Misspelling Variants of "horrifying"

Frequency rank: #15,830 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "horrifying"?
"horrifying" is spelled H-O-R-R-I-F-Y-I-N-G.
What does "horrifying" mean?
As an adj, "horrifying" means: Tending to inspire horror; that horrifies; horrific.
What are common misspellings of "horrifying"?
Common misspellings include "hhorrifying", "horifying", "horirfying", "horrfiying", "horriffying". The correct spelling is "horrifying".
What language does "horrifying" come from?
"horrifying" is a English word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter H in our English index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.