Word.ws English Dictionary

Trojan horse

Trojan horse proper noun: the hollow wooden horse by which the Greeks allegedly gained access to Troy during the Trojan War. Also the alternative form of Trojan-horse.

Proper noun (1)

the Trojan horse

  1. (Greek) The hollow wooden horse by which the Greeks allegedly gained access to Troy during the Trojan War.

Noun

Trojan horse (plural Trojan horses)

  1. (figuratively) A subversive person or device placed within the ranks of the enemy.
  2. (computer security) A malicious program that is disguised as legitimate software.
    • Worse than what could be observed about the program was the fear that it might be a Trojan horse program -- apparently innocent, but carrying a string of code instructing the computer to carry out a specific damaging instruction at some later time.1991, Katie Hafner, John Markoff, Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier, revised edition, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, pages 255–256
    Synonyms:
    Trojan
  3. A seemingly favorable offer designed to trick customers into making exorbitant payments.
  4. A person, organization, social movement, piece of legislation, or ideology with a negative agenda or evil intentions under the guise of positive values or good intentions.
    • Russia thinks of an atomic authority as a Trojan horse to get behind the iron curtain and impair her defense, and there is some reason historically for this view.1946 October, John Foster Dulles, quotee, American Bar Association Journal, volume 32, number 10, page 681
    • Seen like this, huge western companies function like a Trojan horse when they are invited inside the boundaries of LDCs.1995, Peter Saunders, Capitalism, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, →ISBN, page 38

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Trojan Horse

the Trojan Horse

  1. (alternative) Alternative form of Trojan horse.

Also used as

Trojan horse is also the alternative form of Trojan-horse.

Trojan horse meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Bengali and Telugu

Trojan horse in Hindi

epic wooden horse
ट्रोजन हॉर्स ṭrojan hŏrs

Trojan horse in Tamil

epic wooden horse
மரக்குதிரை marakkutirai

Trojan horse in Bengali

epic wooden horse
ট্রয়ের ঘোড়া ṭroẏer ghōṛa

Trojan horse in Telugu

epic wooden horse
ట్రోజన్ హార్స్ ṭrōjan hārs
More languagesFewer languages
Trojan horse in Punjabi
ਟ੍ਰੋਜਨ ਹਾਰਸ ṭrojan hāras, ਲੱਕੜ ਦਾ ਘੋੜਾ lakkaṛ dā ghoṛā
Trojan horse in Tagalog
Kabayo ng Troya
Trojan horse in Arabic
حِصَان طَرْوَادَة ḥiṣān ṭarwāda
Trojan horse in Indonesian
kuda troya
Trojan horse in Persian
اسب تروآ
Trojan horse in Thai
ม้าโทรจัน

Synonyms of Trojan horse

Forms of Trojan horse

Proper noun
alternative formTrojan Horse
Noun
pluralTrojan horses
Verb
third-person singular presentTrojan horses
present participleTrojan horsing
past participleTrojan horsed
pastTrojan horsed

Questions about Trojan horse

What does Trojan horse mean?
Trojan horse means the hollow wooden horse by which the Greeks allegedly gained access to Troy during the Trojan War.
What is Trojan horse in Hindi?
Trojan horse in Hindi is ट्रोजन हॉर्स (ṭrojan hŏrs). See Trojan horse meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is Trojan horse?
Trojan horse can be a proper noun or a noun.

Words near Trojan horse in the dictionary

  1. Troisis
  2. Troisvierges
  3. trojan
  4. Trojan asteroid
  5. Trojan asteroids
  6. Trojan horse
  7. Trojan horsed
  8. Trojan horses
  9. Trojan horsing
  10. Trojan moon
  11. Trojan moons

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Trojan horse (page history and authors); Trojan Horse (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Trojan horse.wav.

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