- present participle of horrify.
horrifying
Britishadjective
-
causing feelings of horror in; awful; terrifying;
-
dismaying or greatly shocking; dreadful
Other Word Forms
Explanation
Horrifying things are scary and disturbing. A car crash, a violent scene in a movie, and an exposé on what's really in your fast food hamburger can all be described as horrifying. Something that scares you to death, like the sound of footsteps upstairs in your dark, empty house or the sight of a bear on the hiking trail, is horrifying. Equally horrifying are things that sicken you, like photographs from a battlefield or the description of a painful dental procedure. Horrifying things inspire horror, originally a Latin word meaning both "dread" and "religious awe," from horrere, "to bristle with fear."
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.
It could be a pretty boring, sometimes horrifying process — I’ll never forget the thrash metal song we received about Shannen Doherty that sounded like it was recorded in a blender.
From Salon ● Oct. 4, 2026
These guys have long been trained to understand they’re building tools with potentially horrifying implications, and they’re not wrong about that.
From Slate ● Sep. 15, 2026
Amy Madigan won best supporting actress at the Oscars for her performance as the hilarious, horrifying witch Gladys.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026
And it’s going to be beautiful and awful and horrifying and sacred.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
He climbs up the bookcase, which is horrifying as it rises up at him.
From "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" by J.K. Rowling
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.
