horry

adj

"horry" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“horry” is an uncommon English word, ranked #62,203 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.

#62,203
frequency rank, English
5
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - impure; unclean; disgustingly dirty; foul

Key facts for horry
PropertyValue
Headwordhorry
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
Letters5
Frequency rank#62,203
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “horry” sits in English frequency

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right). horry lands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for horry is 5 letters long, classified as an adjective. Corpus data places it at rank #62,203 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "impure; unclean; disgustingly dirty; foul".

horry doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English hory, hoory, from Old English horiġ, horhiġ (“foul, unclean”), from Proto-West Germanic *hurhwīg, from Proto-Germanic *hurhwīgaz (“foul, filthy, soiled, unclean”). Cognate with Middle High German horwig, horwic, horig, horg (“muddy, filt… The correct English form is horry, spelled H-O-R-R-Y.

Definition

  1. 1
    impure; unclean; disgustingly dirty; foul

Etymology

From Middle English hory, hoory, from Old English horiġ, horhiġ (“foul, unclean”), from Proto-West Germanic *hurhwīg, from Proto-Germanic *hurhwīgaz (“foul, filthy, soiled, unclean”). Cognate with Middle High German horwig, horwic, horig, horg (“muddy, filthy”).

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "horry"?
"horry" is spelled H-O-R-R-Y.
What does "horry" mean?
As an adjective, "horry" means: impure; unclean; disgustingly dirty; foul
What is the origin of the word "horry"?
From Middle English hory, hoory, from Old English horiġ, horhiġ (“foul, unclean”), from Proto-West Germanic *hurhwīg, from Proto-Germanic *hurhwīgaz (“foul, filthy, soiled, unclean”). Cognate with Middle High German horwig, horwic, horig, horg (“m... See the full etymology section above for more details.
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.

Using “horry”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is H-O-R-R-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list