Word.ws English Dictionary

annus horribilis

/ˈænəs həˈɹɪbɪlɪs/

annus horribilis noun: a horrible year.

Noun

annus horribilis (plural anni horribiles)

  1. (often italicized) A horrible year
    • It is now a full year since the treaty with Spain was ratified, and the ignoble and bloody war in the Philippines began — a true annus horribilis.1900 February 22, “Year One of the Empire”, in The Nation, page 105
    • As the year 1934, an annus horribilis of political murder and bankrupt statesmanship, drew toward a close, Europe had the jitters.1936, John T. Whitaker, And Fear Came, page 208

Forms of annus horribilis

pluralanni horribiles

Origin of annus horribilis

From the Latin annus (“year”) + horribilis (“of horrors”), on the model of annus mirabilis.

Questions about annus horribilis

What does annus horribilis mean?
Annus horribilis means a horrible year.
What part of speech is annus horribilis?
Annus horribilis is a noun.
How do you pronounce annus horribilis?
Annus horribilis is pronounced /ˈænəs həˈɹɪbɪlɪs/.
What is the plural of annus horribilis?
The plural of annus horribilis is anni horribiles.

Words near annus horribilis in the dictionary

  1. annunciator
  2. annunciators
  3. annunciatory
  4. Annunziato
  5. Annunziatos
  6. annus horribilis
  7. annus mirabilis
  8. Annwfn
  9. Annwfyn
  10. Annwn
  11. anny

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: annus horribilis (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-annus horribilis.wav.

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