horror
horr·or/ˈhɒɹə/noun
horror is spelled H-O-R-R-O-R: 6 letters and 2 syllables (horr·or). It appears 27 times per million words in written English, the 3,422nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, horror means “An intense distressing emotion of fear or repugnance” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of horror is horrors.
How many letters and syllables are in horror?
| Letters | 6: H-O-R-R-O-R |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: horr·or |
| In writing | 27 times per million words; the 3,422nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is horror?
Horror appears 27 times per million words in written English, the 3,422nd 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 horror?
- UK /ˈhɒɹə/
- British /ˈhɔɹə/
- /ˈhɒɾə/
Horror has 2 syllables, split horr·or in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-horror.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of horror
- horrors plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does horror mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
An intense distressing emotion of fear or repugnance.
- 2
Something horrible; that which excites horror.
I saw many horrors during the war.
- 3
Intense dislike or aversion; an abhorrence.
- 4
A genre of fiction designed to evoke a feeling of fear and suspense.
- 5
An individual work in this genre.
- 6
colloquialA nasty or ill-behaved person; a rascal or terror.
The neighbour's kids are a pack of little horrors!
- 7
informalAn intense anxiety or a nervous depression; often the horrors.
- 8
informalDelirium tremens.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Horror in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | horreur, effroi , dégoût, aversion, répulsion |
| German | Entsetzen, Schrecken, Furcht, Horror, Grauen |
| Portuguese | horror |
| Spanish | horror |
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 horror come from?
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.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).