Horizon

How to spell horizon

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce horizon

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does horizon mean?

1. nounThe line at which the earth or sea appears to meet the sky.
2. nounThe limit of a person's knowledge, experience, or interest.

Horizon in a sentence

• The morning sun rose slowly above the distant horizon.

• Studying abroad helped broaden her cultural horizon.

• Sailors watched the storm clouds gather along the horizon.

• The new project pushed the team beyond its usual technical horizon.

Where does horizon come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word traces back to the Greek verb horizein, meaning 'to bound' or 'to divide', which was itself built on horos, a 'boundary' or 'limit'. The Greeks spoke of the horizon kuklos, the 'bounding circle' that marks where the visible sky meets the earth, and over time the descriptive participle horizon came to carry the whole idea on its own. Latin borrowed it as horizon, and English took it up in the late 1300s, partly through Old French, keeping the original spelling almost untouched. The same horos root for a boundary also gives us 'aphorism', literally a saying that marks off a clear definition. Because the word keeps its Greek vowels intact, the spelling trap lies in the unstressed middle, where the second vowel sounds like a faint 'uh' yet must be written as an 'i'.

How the word is built

• horiz- (from Greek horizein: to bound, divide)
• -on (Greek participle ending)