Word.ws English Dictionary

greenhorn

Syllables: green·horn/ˈɡɹiːnˌhɔːɹn/US/ˈɡɹinˌhoɹn/

greenhorn noun: an inexperienced person; a novice, beginner, or newcomer.

Noun

greenhorn (plural greenhorns)

  1. (US) An inexperienced person; a novice, beginner, or newcomer.
    • The powers of the Canadian voyageurs and hunters in the consumption of meat strike the greenhorn with wonder and astonishment; and are only equalled by the gastronomical capabilities exhibited by Indian dogs, both following the same plan in their epicurean gorgings.1847, George Frederick Augustus Ruxton, Adventures in Mexico and the Rocky Mountains, page 267
    • Bije scorned the man who had hired him, this Francis Mason from Philadelphia, but he admitted that the greenhorn had courage and determination.1950, Dorothy M. Johnson, War Shirt; in Indian Country, London: Corgi, 1961, page 107
  2. (ethnic, offensive, slur, chiefly Massachusetts) A Portuguese person.
    • She lives in New Bedford, and her dad's not around much and her mum calls her boyfriend a Portagee, a fuckin' greenhorn,1993, Common Lives, Lesbian Lives- Issues 47-49, page 37

Proper noun capitalized: Greenhorn

Greenhorn

  1. A census-designated place in Plumas County, California, United States.

greenhorn meaning in Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Tagalog

greenhorn in Tamil

greenhorn
அரைகுறை araikuṟai

greenhorn in Malayalam

novice, learner, neophyte
പുതുതായി വന്നവൻ, പ്രാരംഭകൻ, തുടക്കക്കാരൻ, പുതുതായി ചേർന്നവൻ, നവച്ഛാത്രൻ, പുതിയ വിദ്യാർത്ഥി

greenhorn in Kannada

ಹೊಸಬ, ಪಳಗದವ

greenhorn in Tagalog

inexperienced person
singki

Synonyms of greenhorn

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of greenhorn

Forms of greenhorn

pluralgreenhorns
alternative form (obsolete)green-horn
alternative form (obsolete)green horn

Origin of greenhorn

Inherited from Middle English grene horn, which is attested for “horn of a recently killed animal” and as the name of a horse. It may also have been used of young horned animals. In all cases “green” refers to the idea of “fresh, young, recent”, taken from plants and used in Middle English for all kinds of things irrespective of their colour, e.g. wounds, leather, fish, cheese (see green cheese). Figurative use for people dates from the 17th century. Compare semantically German Grünschnabel (literally “green-beak”). By surface analysis, green + horn.

Words formed from greenhorn

Questions about greenhorn

What does greenhorn mean?
Greenhorn means an inexperienced person; a novice, beginner, or newcomer.
What is greenhorn in Tamil?
Greenhorn in Tamil is அரைகுறை (araikuṟai). See Greenhorn meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is greenhorn?
Greenhorn can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce greenhorn?
Greenhorn is pronounced /ˈɡɹiːnˌhɔːɹn/ (UK).
What is the plural of greenhorn?
The plural of greenhorn is greenhorns.

Words near greenhorn in the dictionary

  1. greenho'ns
  2. Greenhoe
  3. Greenholme
  4. greenhood
  5. greenhoods
  6. greenhorn
  7. greenhornish
  8. greenhornism
  9. greenhorns
  10. greenhouse
  11. greenhouse bug

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: greenhorn (page history and authors); Greenhorn (page history and authors); அரைகுறை (Tamil) (page history and authors); greenhorn (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); greenhorn (Kannada Wiktionary) (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-greenhorn.wav.

Cite this entry: “greenhorn.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/greenhorn. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.