Word.ws English Dictionary

shock horror

shock horror interjection: an expression of amazement at something controversial.

Interjection

  1. (ironic) An expression of amazement at something controversial.
    • The identity of the secretive street artist has been outed by a Sunday newspaper and, shock horror, he's middle class.2008 July 14, Francesca Gavin, The Guardian
    • The bulk of Castro's Secrets argues […] that Castro was aware that Lee Harvey Oswald was going to try to kill Kennedy in Dallas and (shock horror) did not warn the US authorities, ‘the most despicable decision during his nearly five decades in power’.2012, Hugh Bicheno, “Spies of the Caribbean”, in Literary Review, section 401

Questions about shock horror

What does shock horror mean?
Shock horror means an expression of amazement at something controversial.
What part of speech is shock horror?
Shock horror is an interjection.

Words near shock horror in the dictionary

  1. shock collars
  2. shock diamond
  3. shock diamonds
  4. shock front
  5. shock fronts
  6. shock horror
  7. shock jock
  8. shock jocks
  9. shock mount
  10. shock mounts
  11. shock paddle

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shock horror (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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