Horrifying

How to spell horrifying

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce horrifying

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does horrifying mean?

1. adjectiveCausing intense fear, shock, or disgust.

Horrifying in a sentence

• The documentary revealed horrifying conditions inside the factory.

• She described the car crash she witnessed as utterly horrifying.

Where does horrifying come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word ultimately traces back to the Latin verb horrere, which literally meant 'to bristle' or 'to stand on end', the way hair does on the skin during a shock of fear or cold. From that vivid bodily image Latin built horrificare, 'to cause such bristling', combining horrere with facere, meaning 'to make'. English borrowed the verb 'horrify' in the late 1700s, and 'horrifying' is simply its present participle used as an adjective for anything that fills you with dread. The same horrere root sits behind a whole family of English words including 'horror', 'horrible', and 'horrid', and even 'abhor', literally 'to shudder away from'. For spelling, the trap is the double r inherited straight from the Latin root and the unstressed middle vowel in the -ify portion, which the ear hears only as a faint schwa.

How the word is built

• horr- (from Latin horrere: to bristle, shudder)
• -ify (to make)
• -ing (present participle / adjective suffix)