Word.ws English Dictionary

hors categorie

hors categorie noun: the toughest category of climbs, tougher than category 1. One of six categories of climbs, HC, 1, 2, 3, 4, and not classified; not classified being the easiest.

Noun

hors categorie (plural hors categories)

  1. The toughest category of climbs, tougher than category 1. One of six categories of climbs, HC, 1, 2, 3, 4, and not classified; not classified being the easiest.
    • Ahead of me was the legendary Col de Tourmalet—at 2115m, the highest road pass in the Pyrenees and a stalwart in Tour de France history. It's even classed as an hors-catégorie (out-of-category) climb because it's such a killer. This was a mountain that even professional cyclists are wary of.2005 June 28, Max Wooldridge, “Stages fright”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
    • This was a victory in the grand style, the reward for a heroic escape on the slopes of a vicious mountain pass rated hors-catégorie.2010 July 18, Richard Williams, “Tour de France 2010: Home rider Christophe Riblon celebrates big day”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
    Synonyms:
    HC, S

Synonyms of hors categorie

Forms of hors categorie

pluralhors categories
alternative formhors catégorie

Origin of hors categorie

Borrowed from French hors catégorie (literally “beyond category”).

Questions about hors categorie

What does hors categorie mean?
Hors categorie means the toughest category of climbs, tougher than category 1. One of six categories of climbs, HC, 1, 2, 3, 4, and not classified; not classified being the easiest.
What part of speech is hors categorie?
Hors categorie is a noun.
What is the plural of hors categorie?
The plural of hors categorie is hors categories.

Words near hors categorie in the dictionary

  1. Horrox
  2. Horroxian
  3. Horrs
  4. horry
  5. Horry County
  6. hors categorie
  7. hors categories
  8. hors catégorie
  9. hors catégories
  10. hors d'oeuvre
  11. hors d'oeuvres

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hors categorie (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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Cite this entry: “hors categorie.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hors_categorie. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.