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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

horn.

A hard growth of keratin that protrudes from the top of the head of certain animals, usually paired.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/hɔːn/Received-Pronunciation/hɔɹn/General-American/ˈhɑːɹˠn//ˈhoːɹˠn/
  1. A hard growth of keratin that protrudes from the top of the head of certain animals, usually paired.

    countable
  2. Any similar real or imaginary growth or projection such as the elongated tusk of a narwhal, the eyestalk of a snail, the pointed growth on the nose of a rhinoceros, or the hornlike projection on the head of a demon or similar.

    countable · uncountable
  3. An antler.

    countable · uncountable
  4. The hard substance from which animals' horns are made, sometimes used by man as a material for making various objects.

    uncountable
    an umbrella with a handle made of horn
  5. A vessel made from a horn, to contain drink, ink, gunpowder, etc.

    countable · uncountable
  6. An object whose shape resembles a horn, such as cornucopia or the point of an anvil. One of the two corners of a crescent, particularly of the crescent moon

    countable · uncountable
  7. An object whose shape resembles a horn, such as cornucopia or the point of an anvil. The high pommel of a saddle; also, either of the projections on a lady's saddle for supporting the leg.

    countable · uncountable
  8. An object whose shape resembles a horn, such as cornucopia or the point of an anvil. The Ionic volute.

    countable · uncountable
  9. An object whose shape resembles a horn, such as cornucopia or the point of an anvil. The outer end of a crosstree; also, one of the projections forming the jaws of a gaff, boom, etc.

    countable · uncountable
  10. An object whose shape resembles a horn, such as cornucopia or the point of an anvil. A curved projection on the fore part of a plane.

    countable · uncountable
  11. An object whose shape resembles a horn, such as cornucopia or the point of an anvil. One of the projections at the four corners of the Jewish altar of burnt offering.

    countable · uncountable
  12. Any of several musical wind instruments.

    countable
  13. An instrument resembling a musical horn and used to signal others.

    countable
    hunting horn
  14. A loud alarm, especially one on a motor vehicle.

    countable
  15. A sound signaling the expiration of time.

    countable · uncountable
    The shot was after the horn and therefore did not count.
  16. A conical device used to direct waves.

    countable
    antenna horn
    loudspeaker horn
  17. Generally, any brass wind instrument.

    countable · informal
  18. A telephone.

    countable · slang
    Get him on the horn so that we can have a discussion about this.
  19. An erection of the penis.

    countable · slang · uncountable · vulgar · with-definite-article
  20. A peninsula or projecting tract of land.

    countable
    to navigate around the horn
  21. A diacritical mark that may be attached to the top right corner of the letters o and u when writing in Vietnamese, thus forming ơ and ư.

    countable
  22. An incurved, tapering and pointed appendage found in the flowers of the milkweed (Asclepias).

    countable · uncountable
  23. In naval mine warfare, a projection from the mine shell of some contact mines which, when broken or bent by contact, causes the mine to fire.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱer- Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ ? Proto-Indo-European *ḱerh₂- Proto-Indo-European *-nós Proto-Indo-European *ḱr̥h₂nós Proto-Indo-European *-om Proto-Indo-European *ḱr̥h₂nóm Proto-Germanic *hurną Proto-West Germanic *horn Old English horn Middle English horn English horn From Middle English horn, horne, from Old English horn, from Proto-West Germanic *horn, from Proto-Germanic *hurną. Compare West Frisian hoarn, Dutch hoorn, Low German Hoorn, horn, German Horn, Danish and Swedish horn, Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌽 (haurn). Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱr̥h₂-nó-m, from *ḱerh₂- (“head, horn”). Compare Breton kern (“horn”), Latin cornū, Ancient Greek κέρας (kéras), Proto-Slavic *sьrna, Old Church Slavonic сьрна (sĭrna, “roedeer”), Hittite [script needed] (surna, “horn”), Persian سر (sar), Sanskrit शृङ्ग (śṛṅga, “horn”). Doublet of corn (“callus”), corno, and cornu. (telephone): From the horn-shaped earpieces of old communication systems that used air tubes.

verb/hɔːn/Received-Pronunciation/hɔɹn/General-American/ˈhɑːɹˠn//ˈhoːɹˠn/
  1. Of an animal, to assault with the horns.

    transitive
  2. To furnish with horns.

    transitive
  3. To cuckold.

    obsolete · slang · transitive
  4. To sound the horn of a motor vehicle; to honk.

    India · Singapore · intransitive
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱer- Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ ? Proto-Indo-European *ḱerh₂- Proto-Indo-European *-nós Proto-Indo-European *ḱr̥h₂nós Proto-Indo-European *-om Proto-Indo-European *ḱr̥h₂nóm Proto-Germanic *hurną Proto-West Germanic *horn Old English horn Middle English horn English horn From Middle English horn, horne, from Old English horn, from Proto-West Germanic *horn, from Proto-Germanic *hurną. Compare West Frisian hoarn, Dutch hoorn, Low German Hoorn, horn, German Horn, Danish and Swedish horn, Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌽 (haurn). Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱr̥h₂-nó-m, from *ḱerh₂- (“head, horn”). Compare Breton kern (“horn”), Latin cornū, Ancient Greek κέρας (kéras), Proto-Slavic *sьrna, Old Church Slavonic сьрна (sĭrna, “roedeer”), Hittite [script needed] (surna, “horn”), Persian سر (sar), Sanskrit शृङ्ग (śṛṅga, “horn”). Doublet of corn (“callus”), corno, and cornu. (telephone): From the horn-shaped earpieces of old communication systems that used air tubes.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.