horn
/hɔːn//hɔɹn/
horn noun: a hard growth of keratin that protrudes from the top of the head of certain animals, usually paired.
Noun
horn (countable and uncountable, plural horns)
- A hard growth of keratin that protrudes from the top of the head of certain animals, usually paired.
- 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.
- An antler.
- The hard substance from which animals' horns are made, sometimes used by man as a material for making various objects.
- an umbrella with a handle made of horn
- Synonyms:
- keratin
- A vessel made from a horn, to contain drink, ink, gunpowder, etc.
- horns of mead and ale1775, William Mason, The Poems of Mr. Gray. To which are prefixed Memoirs of his Life and Writings by W. Mason.
- The one brought out a filled up horn.1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 179
- One of the two corners of a crescent, particularly of the crescent moon
- [W]hile riſing ſlow, / Blank, in the leaden-colour'd eaſt, the moon / Wears a wan circle round her blunted horns.a. 1749 (date written), James Thomson, “Winter”, in The Seasons, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, […], published 1768, →OCLC, page 169, lines 123–125
- The high pommel of a saddle; also, either of the projections on a lady's saddle for supporting the leg.
- The Ionic volute.
- The outer end of a crosstree; also, one of the projections forming the jaws of a gaff, boom, etc.
- A curved projection on the fore part of a plane.
- One of the projections at the four corners of the Jewish altar of burnt offering.
- Joab […] caught hold on the horns of the altar1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Kings 2:28
- Any of several musical wind instruments.
Show 11 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
- An instrument resembling a musical horn and used to signal others.
- hunting horn
- A loud alarm, especially one on a motor vehicle.
- A sound signaling the expiration of time.
- The shot was after the horn and therefore did not count.
- A conical device used to direct waves.
- antenna horn
- loudspeaker horn
- Synonyms:
- funnel
- Generally, any brass wind instrument.
- A telephone.
- Get him on the horn so that we can have a discussion about this.
- Synonyms:
- blower, dog and bone, phone
- An erection of the penis.
- A peninsula or projecting tract of land.
- to navigate around the horn
- But nowhere are there queerer waters than in our own parish of Caulds, at the place called the Sker Bay, where between two horns of land a shallow estuary receives the stream of the Sker.1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide
- Synonyms:
- peninsula
- 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.
- An incurved, tapering and pointed appendage found in the flowers of the milkweed (Asclepias).
- 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.
Verb
horn (third-person singular simple present horns, present participle horning, simple past and past participle horned)
Proper noun (1) capitalized: Horn
the Horn
- Cape Horn, at the southern tip of South America.
- Sailing around the Horn was an arduous journey for sailing ships.
- The Horn of Africa, a peninsula of Africa which juts into the Arabian Sea.
- At the same time, it would be erroneous to exaggerate U.S. interests, to overreact to political developments in the Horn, or to adopt imprudent policies based on emotional reactions to Soviet and Cuban involvement.1978, War in the Horn of Africa, report of the United States Fact-Finding Mission to Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya, page 4
- […] countries fail to explore the possibilities of producing other crops of high value and demand in the Horn or elsewhere.1998, John Markakis, Resource conflict in the Horn of Africa, page 185
Proper noun (2) capitalized: Horn
Horn (countable and uncountable, plural Horns)
- A surname.
- A former civil parish in Rutland, England, abolished in 2016 on the formation of Exton and Horn parish.
- An unincorporated community in Dawes County, Nebraska, United States.
horn meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
horn in Hindi
- growth on the heads of certain animals
- सींग sīṅg, खाँग khāṅg, खँगुवा khaṅguvā, खगुवा khaguvā, खँगवा khaṅgvā, शाख śākh
- loud alarm, especially on a motor vehicle
- भोंपू bhõpū, क्लाक्सोन klākson
horn in Tamil
- கொம்பு, மருப்பு, வாகன ஒலி
horn in Marathi
- growth on the heads of certain animals
- शिंग śiṅga, शृंग śṛ́ṅga
horn in Urdu
- growth on the heads of certain animals
- سینگ sī̃g
More languagesFewer languages
- horn in Bengali
- শিঙা śiṅa, ভেঁপু bhẽpu
- horn in Telugu
- కొమ్ము kommu, బూర būra, హారను hāranu
- horn in Malayalam
- കൊമ്പ് kompŭ
- horn in Kannada
- ಕೋಡು, ಕೋಳು, ಕೊಂಬು, ಕುಂಬು
- horn in Punjabi
- ਸਿੰਙ sĩṅ
- horn in Gujarati
- શિંગડું śiṅgḍũ, ખડગ khaḍag
- horn in Odia
- ଶିଙ୍ଗ śiṅga
- horn in Sanskrit
- शृङ्ग śṛṅgá
- horn in Sinhala
- කොම්බුව kombuwa, අඟ aⁿga
- horn in Assamese
- শিং xiṅ
- horn in Pashto
- ښکر x̌kar
- horn in Tagalog
- sungay, busina
- horn in Arabic
- قَرْن qarn, قرن ʔarn, بُوق būq, زَمْر zamr
- horn in Malay
- tanduk, hon
- horn in Indonesian
- tanduk, klakson
- horn in Persian
- شاخ šâx, سرو soru, بوق buq, کرنا karnâ
- horn in Thai
- เขา kǎo, นอ nɔɔ, แตร dtrɛɛ, แตรรถ dtrɛɛ-rót
- horn in Vietnamese
- sừng, tù và, kèn, râu
- horn in Myanmar
- ချို hkyui, ဦးချို u:hkyui, ဟွန်း hwan:
- Sindhi
- سڱ sṅ
Examples of horn in a sentence
- The motorists in the traffic jam were getting more and more frustrated and started beeping their horns.
- The horn section is the group of symphonic musicians who play the French horn.
- He gave a little toot of the horn, to get their attention.
Synonyms of horn
1 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of horn
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | horns |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | horns |
| present participle | horning |
| past participle | horned |
| past | horned |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Horns |
Origin of 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.
Words formed from horn
- Exton and Horn
- Horn Kolb syndrome
- 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
- Bersag horn
- 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
- bullhorn
- bull-horn
- 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
- foghorn
- fog horn
- French horn
- gate of horn
Phrases with horn
- horn in
- horn dog
- horn fly
- horn out
- Van Horn
- war horn
- Cape Horn
- horn ball
- horn book
- horn dogs
- horn drum
- horn fair
82 more phrasesFewer phrases
- horn pipe
- mead horn
- post horn
- shoe horn
- horn angle
- horn books
- horn coral
- horn drums
- horn fairs
- horn flies
- horn guide
- horn piper
- horn pipes
- horn poppy
- horn shark
- horn slate
- party horn
- ram's horn
- tenor horn
- Golden Horn
- horn angles
- Horn clause
- horn corals
- horn guides
- horn pipers
- horn sharks
- horn silver
- horn slates
- horn timber
- horn tipper
- horn violin
- on the horn
- Pinard horn
- powder horn
- remote horn
- saddle horn
- stag's horn
- switch horn
- take a horn
- Vienna horn
- cholera horn
- Horn African
- horn antenna
- Horn clauses
- horn mercury
- horn timbers
- horn tippers
- horn violins
- hunting horn
- off the horn
- stadium horn
- uterine horn
- gates of horn
- Horn Africans
- horn antennae
- horn antennas
- meringue horn
- plenty's horn
- Viennese horn
- Horn of Africa
- horn of plenty
- Horn OK Please
- round the Horn
- put to the horn
- rounds the Horn
- deer horn knives
- horn of Amalthea
- puts to the horn
- ram's horn squid
- rounded the Horn
- obtuse horn shell
- ram's horn squids
- rounding the Horn
- obtuse horn shells
- iliac horn syndrome
- putting to the horn
- toot one's own horn
- toots one's own horn
- buck's horn plantains
- tooted one's own horn
- tooting one's own horn
- occipital horn syndrome
Words that rhyme with horn
Questions about horn
- What does horn mean?
- Horn means a hard growth of keratin that protrudes from the top of the head of certain animals, usually paired.
- What is horn in Hindi?
- Horn in Hindi is सींग (sīṅg), खाँग (khāṅg), खँगुवा (khaṅguvā). See Horn meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is horn?
- Horn can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce horn?
- Horn is pronounced /hɔːn/ (UK).
- What is the plural of horn?
- The plural of horn is horns.
Words near horn in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: horn (page history and authors); Horn (page history and authors); horn (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); കൊമ്പ് (Malayalam) (page history and authors); horn (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ખડગ (Gujarati) (page history and authors); අඟ (Sinhala) (page history and authors); ښکر (Pashto) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-uk-horn.ogg, en-us-horn.ogg.
Cite this entry: “horn.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/horn. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.