Cape Horn

American  

noun

1. a headland on a small island at the southern extremity of South America: belongs to Chile.

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Cape Horn British  

noun

1. Also called: the Horn.  a rocky headland on an island at the extreme S tip of South America, belonging to Chile. It is notorious for gales and heavy seas; until the building of the Panama Canal it lay on the only sea route between the Atlantic and the Pacific

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Example Sentences

A helpful map of the globe points out notoriously treacherous waters, including those off the southern tip of South America, where countless sailors have perished in the turbulent seas around Cape Horn.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 22, 2026

Miranda wanted to lead a Latin American revolution, and create from Spain’s former colonies a grand republic of Colombia stretching from Cape Horn to California.

From Barron's • Jan. 18, 2026

The 51-mile-long canal avoids the need for ships to make the much longer voyage around Cape Horn at the tip of South America.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 20, 2025

From there, she continued east where Brauer faced the unpredictable, treacherous and deadly Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America before continuing northeast across the Atlantic Ocean toward Spain.

From Seattle Times • Mar. 7, 2024

Rounded Cape Horn, the coast of Brazil, stopped for carnival in Port-of-Spain.

From "Dreaming in Cuban" by Cristina García