HORN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does horn mean? 

• HORN (noun)
  The noun HORN has 11 senses:

1. a noisemaker (as at parties or games) that makes a loud noise when you blow through it

2. one of the bony outgrowths on the heads of certain ungulates

3. a noise made by the driver of an automobile to give warning

4. a high pommel of a Western saddle (usually metal covered with leather)

5. a brass musical instrument with a brilliant tone; has a narrow tube and a flared bell and is played by means of valves

6. any hard protuberance from the head of an organism that is similar to or suggestive of a horn

7. the material (mostly keratin) that covers the horns of ungulates and forms hooves and claws and nails

8. a device having the shape of a horn

9. an alarm device that makes a loud warning sound

10. a brass musical instrument consisting of a conical tube that is coiled into a spiral and played by means of valves

11. a device on an automobile for making a warning noise

  Familiarity information: HORN used as a noun is familiar.

• HORN (verb)
  The verb HORN has 1 sense:

1. stab or pierce with a horn or tusk

  Familiarity information: HORN used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HORN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A noisemaker (as at parties or games) that makes a loud noise when you blow through it

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("horn" is a kind of...):

noisemaker (a device (such as a clapper or bell or horn) used to make a loud noise at a celebration)

Domain category:

game (a contest with rules to determine a winner)

Sense 2

Meaning:

One of the bony outgrowths on the heads of certain ungulates

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("horn" is a kind of...):

appendage; outgrowth; process (a natural prolongation or projection from a part of an organism either animal or plant)

Meronyms (substance of "horn"):

bone; os (rigid connective tissue that makes up the skeleton of vertebrates)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "horn"):

antler (deciduous horn of a member of the deer family)

Holonyms ("horn" is a part of...):

bull (uncastrated adult male of domestic cattle)

ram; tup (uncastrated adult male sheep)

caprine animal; goat (any of numerous agile ruminants related to sheep but having a beard and straight horns)

Derivation:

horn (stab or pierce with a horn or tusk)

horny (having horns or hornlike projections)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A noise made by the driver of an automobile to give warning

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("horn" is a kind of...):

alarm; alarum; alert; warning signal (an automatic signal (usually a sound) warning of danger)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A high pommel of a Western saddle (usually metal covered with leather)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

horn; saddle horn

Hypernyms ("horn" is a kind of...):

pommel; saddlebow (handgrip formed by the raised front part of a saddle)

Holonyms ("horn" is a part of...):

stock saddle; Western saddle (an ornamented saddle used by cowboys; has a high horn to hold the lariat)

Sense 5

Meaning:

A brass musical instrument with a brilliant tone; has a narrow tube and a flared bell and is played by means of valves

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

cornet; horn; trump; trumpet

Hypernyms ("horn" is a kind of...):

brass; brass instrument (a wind instrument that consists of a brass tube (usually of variable length) that is blown by means of a cup-shaped or funnel-shaped mouthpiece)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "horn"):

serpent (an obsolete bass cornet; resembles a snake)

Sense 6

Meaning:

Any hard protuberance from the head of an organism that is similar to or suggestive of a horn

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("horn" is a kind of...):

appendage; outgrowth; process (a natural prolongation or projection from a part of an organism either animal or plant)

Derivation:

horn (stab or pierce with a horn or tusk)

Sense 7

Meaning:

The material (mostly keratin) that covers the horns of ungulates and forms hooves and claws and nails

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Hypernyms ("horn" is a kind of...):

animal material (material derived from animals)

Meronyms (substance of "horn"):

ceratin; keratin (a fibrous scleroprotein that occurs in the outer layer of the skin and in horny tissues such as hair, feathers, nails, and hooves)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "horn"):

baleen; whalebone (a horny material from the upper jaws of certain whales; used as the ribs of fans or as stays in corsets)

tortoiseshell (the mottled horny substance of the shell of some turtles)

Derivation:

horny (made of horn (or of a substance resembling horn))

Sense 8

Meaning:

A device having the shape of a horn

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Context example:

the cleat had two horns

Hypernyms ("horn" is a kind of...):

device (an instrumentality invented for a particular purpose)

Sense 9

Meaning:

An alarm device that makes a loud warning sound

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("horn" is a kind of...):

alarm; alarm system; warning device (a device that signals the occurrence of some undesirable event)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "horn"):

air horn (a pneumatic horn)

foghorn (a warning device consisting of a horn that generates a loud low tone)

claxon; klaxon (a kind of loud horn formerly used on motor vehicles)

shofar; shophar (an ancient musical horn made from the horn of a ram; used in ancient times by the Israelites to sound a warning or a summons; used in synagogues today on solemn occasions)

Sense 10

Meaning:

A brass musical instrument consisting of a conical tube that is coiled into a spiral and played by means of valves

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

French horn; horn

Hypernyms ("horn" is a kind of...):

brass; brass instrument (a wind instrument that consists of a brass tube (usually of variable length) that is blown by means of a cup-shaped or funnel-shaped mouthpiece)

Sense 11

Meaning:

A device on an automobile for making a warning noise

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

automobile horn; car horn; hooter; horn; motor horn

Hypernyms ("horn" is a kind of...):

alarm; alarm system; warning device (a device that signals the occurrence of some undesirable event)

Meronyms (parts of "horn"):

horn button (a button that you press to activate the horn of an automobile)

Holonyms ("horn" is a part of...):

auto; automobile; car; machine; motorcar (a motor vehicle with four wheels; usually propelled by an internal combustion engine)

• HORN (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they horn    ... he / she / it horns   
Past simple: horned   
Past participle: horned   
-ing form: horning   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Stab or pierce with a horn or tusk

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

horn; tusk

Context example:

the rhino horned the explorer

Hypernyms (to "horn" is one way to...):

pierce; thrust (penetrate or cut through with a sharp instrument)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s somebody

Derivation:

horn (one of the bony outgrowths on the heads of certain ungulates)

horn (any hard protuberance from the head of an organism that is similar to or suggestive of a horn)

 Context examples 

Motor neurons in the anterior (ventral) horn of the spinal cord which project to skeletal muscles.

(Anterior Horn Cell, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

Methinks that I should have ruth upon you, seeing that I am myself like one who looks through a horn window while his neighbors have the clear crystal.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

On the other side of the lake stood a fine illuminated castle, from which came the merry music of horns and trumpets.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

“Hump runs the galley from now on, and Cooky pulls in his horns.”

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Mutations in the gene are associated with both Menkes disease and occipital horn syndrome.

(ATP7A wt Allele, NCI Thesaurus)

The next thing I laid hold of was a brace of pistols, and as I already had a powder-horn and bullets, I felt myself well supplied with arms.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

An elastic, fibrous tissue connecting the superior horn of the thyroid cartilage and the tip of the greater horn of the hyoid cartilage.

(Lateral Thyrohyoid Ligament, NCI Thesaurus)

When stretching occurs, the sensory neuron from the muscle spindle signals the motor neurons located within the ventral horn of the spinal cord.

(Muscle Spindle, NCI Thesaurus)

The synovial joint connecting the thyroid cartilage at the inferior horn to the side of the cricoid cartilage.

(Cricothyroid Joint, NCI Thesaurus)

The horn shaped region in the brain, also known as the hippocampus, which is divided into four sub-areas, CA1 through CA4.

(Cornu Ammonis, NCI Thesaurus)