English Explanatory Dictionary

horn

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A hard growth of keratin that protrudes from the top of the head of certain animals, usually paired.
  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.
  3. An antler.
  4. The hard substance from which animals' horns are made, sometimes used by man as a material for making various objects.
  5. A vessel made from a horn, to contain drink, ink, gunpowder, etc.
  6. An object whose shape resembles a horn, such as cornucopia or the point of an anvil.
  7. One of the two corners of a crescent, particularly of the crescent moon
  8. The high pommel of a saddle; also, either of the projections on a lady's saddle for supporting the leg.
  9. The Ionic volute.
  10. The outer end of a crosstree; also, one of the projections forming the jaws of a gaff, boom, etc.
  11. A curved projection on the fore part of a plane.
  12. One of the projections at the four corners of the Jewish altar of burnt offering.
verb
  1. To assault with the horns.
  2. To furnish with horns.
  3. To cuckold.
  4. To sound the horn of a motor vehicle; to honk.
name
  1. Cape Horn, at the southern tip of South America.
  2. The Horn of Africa, a peninsula of Africa which juts into the Arabian Sea.
name
  1. A surname.
  2. A former civil parish in Rutland, England, abolished in 2016 on the formation of Exton and Horn parish.
  3. An unincorporated community in Dawes County, Nebraska, United States.

Pronunciation

/hɔːn/ en-uk-horn.ogg LL-Q1860 (eng)-Back ache-horn.wav /hɔɹn/ en-us-horn.ogg /ˈhɑːɹˠn/ /ˈhoːɹˠn/ /ˈhoːɻn/

Word forms

horn horns horning horned the Horn

Etymology

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.

Synonyms

keratin hooter klaxon funnel blower dog and bone phone boner hard-on stiffy peninsula

Derived words

acoustic horn air horn airhorn Alpine horn alto horn Amalthea's horn Ammon's horn around the horn baritone horn basset horn bass horn bastard horn snake behorn bighorn Big Horn County blowhorn blow-horn blow horn blow one's horn blow one's own horn buckhorn buck's-horn buck's horn plantain bulb horn bull-horn bull horn bullhorn butterhorn chemical horn chrome horn clown horn coach horn collery horn cream horn deerhorn deer horn knife dehorn demihorn dishorn Dorset Horn drinking horn drinking-horn earhorn elkhorn English horn feed horn feedhorn feed-horn fire alarm horn fish-horn fish horn flowerhorn fog-horn fog horn foghorn French horn gate of horn Golden Horn grunt-horn hartshorn

Translations

Afar: gaysa Afrikaans: horing Akkadian: 𒋛 Aklanon: sungay Albanian: bri Amharic: ቀንድ Angor: fufung Ao: tezü (Chungli) Arabic: قَرْن Arabic: قرن Aramaic: ܩܪܢܐ Armenian: եղջյուր Armenian: պոզ Armenian: կոտոշ Armenian: շչակ Old Armenian: եղջիւր Aromanian: cornu Assamese: শিং Asturian: cuernu Atong (India): korong Azerbaijani: buynuz Bahnar: ake Bahnar: hơke West Coast Bajau: sungo Bangi: liseke Bashkir: мөгөҙ Basque: adar Belarusian: рог Bengali: শিঙা Bau Bidayuh: tanuk Boloki: liseke Breton: korn Bulgarian: рог Burmese: ချို Burmese: ဦးချို Buryat: эбэр Carpathian Rusyn: рог Catalan: banya Catalan: corn Cebuano: sungay Central Atlas Tamazight: ⵉⵙⴽ Chamicuro: c̈hepa Chechen: маӏа Chepang: रोङः Chichewa: nyanga Chinese: гә Chinese: җүә Chinese Mandarin: 角
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