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Synonyms

horror

American  
[hawr-er, hor-] / ˈhɔr ər, ˈhɒr- /

noun

  1. an overwhelming and painful feeling caused by something frightfully shocking, terrifying, or revolting; a shuddering fear.

    to shrink back from a mutilated corpse in horror.
    Synonyms:
    consternation, dismay, dread
    Antonyms:
    serenity

  2. anything that causes such a feeling.

    killing, looting, and other horrors of war.

  3. such a feeling as a quality or condition.

    to have known the horror of slow starvation.

  4. a strong aversion; abhorrence.

    to have a horror of emotional outbursts.
    Synonyms:
    abomination, hatred, detestation, antipathy, loathing
    Antonyms:
    attraction

  5. Informal. something considered bad or tasteless.

    That wallpaper is a horror. The party was a horror.

  6. Informal. horrors,

    1. delirium tremens.

    2. extreme depression.

adjective

  1. inspiring or creating horror, loathing, aversion, etc..

    The hostages told horror stories of their year in captivity.

  2. centered upon or depicting terrifying or macabre events.

    a horror movie.

interjection

  1. horrors, (used as a mild expression of dismay, surprise, disappointment, etc.)

horror British  
/ ˈhɒrə /

noun

  1. extreme fear; terror; dread

  2. intense loathing; hatred

  3. (often plural) a thing or person causing fear, loathing, etc

  4. (modifier) having a frightening subject, esp a supernatural one

    a horror film
"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
horror Idioms  

  1. see under throw up one's hands.

Related Words

See terror.

Etymology

Origin of horror

First recorded in 1520–30; from Latin horror, equivalent to horr- (stem of horrēre “to bristle with fear”; horrendous ) + -or -or 1; replacing Middle English orrour, from Anglo-French, from Latin horrōr-, stem of horror

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Few, though, were as brutal as the horror show Matthew Potts suffered in Sydney.

From BBC

It was a reminder, in the middle of the horror, why the fight needed to be fought.

From The Wall Street Journal

She can’t even nudge it enough to let light in, and with dawning horror, she realizes their giant oak tree must have fallen on top of the cellar.

From Literature

But as soon as he realized what they were looking at, his relief turned to horror.

From Literature

"These are respectable numbers for an original horror comedy with a modest budget of around $20 million to produce," said analyst David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research.

From Barron's

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.