horror

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horror

/ˈhɒɹə/ Northern England, UK
/ˈhɔɹə/ British, Southern, Standard
/ˈhɒɾə/ Wales
/ˈhɔɾəɾ/ Scotland
/ˈhoɹɚ/ Canada, US
/ˈhɑɹɚ/ New York City, Philadelphia
/ˈhɑɹə/
/ˈhɒɹə/
/ˈhɔɚ/
/ˈhɔɹə/ Australia
/ˈhɒɹə/ New Zealand
[ˈhɔ̟ɹə] ~ [ˈhɞ̠ɹə] New Zealand

Sounds like whore, hoar (some rhotic American accents with the horse–hoarse merger) · Rhymes with -ɒɹə(ɹ), -ɔː(ɹ)

Where it comes 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.

noun horrors · horrour

countable, uncountable An intense distressing emotion of fear or repugnance. Their swarthy Hosts wou'd darken all our Plains, / Doubling the native Horror of the War, / And making Death more grim.
countable, uncountable Something horrible; that which excites horror. I saw many horrors during the war.
countable, uncountable Intense dislike or aversion; an abhorrence. “Mrs. Yule's chagrin and horror at what she called her son's base ingratitude knew no bounds ; at first it was even thought that she would never get over it. […] ”
uncountable A genre of fiction designed to evoke a feeling of fear and suspense. Those who enjoy horror, stories overflowing with blood and black mystery, will be grateful to Richard Marsh for writing ‘The Beetle.’
countable An individual work in this genre.
colloquial, countable A nasty or ill-behaved person; a rascal or terror. The neighbour's kids are a pack of little horrors!
countable, informal, uncountable An intense anxiety or a nervous depression; often the horrors.
countable, in plural, informal, uncountable Delirium tremens. `My belief is that he had the horrors without knowin' it.'

Similar: nightmare

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