horrifying
Britishadjective
-
causing feelings of horror in; awful; terrifying;
-
dismaying or greatly shocking; dreadful
Other Word Forms
- horrifyingly adverb
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.
"The scale of it is horrifying and the ease of it is just terrifying," said the Labour MP.
From BBC • Apr. 23, 2026
It would be, of course, impossible, if possibly amusing, to tell a “Stranger Things” tale set in this time with the original actors, and horrifying, if not immoral, to tell it with AI clones.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 23, 2026
“I’m keeping Cerina and Justin Fairfax’s children in my prayers as we all process this shocking and horrifying news,” he said in a post on social media.
From Salon • Apr. 16, 2026
I want to talk about why they were so horrifying.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 9, 2026
“Can you—” he tried to act as though a horrifying thought had just occurred to him.
From "Found" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
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.
