horror vacui
Americannoun
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.
Despite the horror vacui and digital pandering, the objects brought together here by lead curator Rosina Buckland describe multiple facets of samurai culture with breadth and brilliance.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 7, 2026
“He also had a horror vacui of a plain surface,” he added, noting that he had never seen so many painted and decorated objects.
From New York Times ● Jan. 22, 2020
This anxiety has its own Latin name, horror vacui, fear of the void — and Kidd brings this intensity to his understanding of every book he reads.
From New York Times ● Jun. 12, 2018
The monumental incoherence and inaccessibility of “Finnegans Wake,” it’s easy to argue, is the best evidence of Joyce’s horror vacui and an epic paean to a father’s conviction of his daughter’s genius.
From New York Times ● Jun. 12, 2018
At least a horror vacui assails us true disciples of knowledge from a Socratian standpoint.
From Withered Leaves. Vol. I. (of III) A Novel by Rudolf von Gottschall
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.
