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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

horrible.

A thing that causes horror; a terrifying thing, particularly a prospective bad consequence asserted as likely to result from an act.

8 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈhɒɹ.ɪ.bəl/Received-Pronunciation/ˈhɔɹ.ɪ.bəl/US[-b(ə)ɫ]US/ˈhɑɹ.ɪ.bəl/
  1. A thing that causes horror; a terrifying thing, particularly a prospective bad consequence asserted as likely to result from an act.

  2. A person wearing a comic or grotesque costume in a parade of horribles.

Where this word comes from

First attested in Middle English (alternately as horrible and orrible) in 1303: from Old French horrible, orrible, orible, from Latin horribilis, from horr(ēre) (“tremble”) + -ibilis (“-ible”).

adj/ˈhɒɹ.ɪ.bəl/Received-Pronunciation/ˈhɔɹ.ɪ.bəl/US[-b(ə)ɫ]US/ˈhɑɹ.ɪ.bəl/
  1. Causing horror; terrible; shocking.

  2. Tremendously bad.

Where this word comes from

First attested in Middle English (alternately as horrible and orrible) in 1303: from Old French horrible, orrible, orible, from Latin horribilis, from horr(ēre) (“tremble”) + -ibilis (“-ible”).

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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.