From Middle English horn, horne, from Old English horn, from Proto-West Germanic *horn, from Proto-Germanic *hurną.

Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European , from *ḱerh₂- ("head, horn").

• (RP) enPR: hôn, IPA: /hɔːn/
• (America) enPR: hôrn, IPA: /hɔɹn/
• (Dublin, non-horse-hoarse) IPA: /ˈhɒːɹn/
• (DE) IPA: /ˈhoːrn/, /ˈhoːɻn/

horn

1. (countable) A hard growth of keratin that protrudes from the top of the head of certain animals, usually paired.
2. Any similar real or imaginary growth or projection such as the elongated tusk of a narwhal, the eyestalk of a snail, the pointed growth on the nose of a rhinoceros, or the hornlike projection on the head of a demon or similar.
3. An antler.
4. (uncountable) The hard substance from which animals' horns are made, sometimes used by man as a material for making various objects.

   Synonyms: keratin

   an umbrella with a handle made of horn

5. A vessel made from a horn, to contain drink, ink, gunpowder, etc.
   • 1775, William Mason, The Poems of Mr. Gray. To which are prefixed Memoirs of his Life and Writings by W. Mason.:

     horns of mead and ale

6. An object whose shape resembles a horn, such as cornucopia or the point of an anvil.
   1. One of the two corners of a crescent, particularly of the crescent moon
      • a. 1749 (date written), James Thomson, “Winter”, in The Seasons, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, […], published 1768, →OCLC ↗, page 169 ↗, lines 123–125:

        [W]hile riſing ſlow, / Blank, in the leaden-colour'd eaſt, the moon / Wears a wan circle round her blunted horns.

   2. The high pommel of a saddle; also, either of the projections on a lady's saddle for supporting the leg.
   3. (architectural element) The Ionic volute.
   4. (nautical) The outer end of a crosstree; also, one of the projections forming the jaws of a gaff, boom, etc.
   5. (carpentry) A curved projection on the fore part of a plane.
   6. One of the projections at the four corners of the Jewish altar of burnt offering.
      • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, 1 Kings 2:28 ↗:

        Joab […] caught hold on the horns of the altar

7. (countable) Any of several musical wind instruments.
8. (countable, musical instrument) An instrument resembling a musical horn and used to signal others.

   hunting horn

9. (countable, automotive) A loud alarm, especially one on a motor vehicle.

   Synonyms: hooter, klaxon

10. (chiefly, sports) A sound signaling the expiration of time.

    The shot was after the horn and therefore did not count.

11. (countable) A conical device used to direct waves.

    Synonyms: funnel

    antenna horn

    loudspeaker horn

12. (informal, musical instrument, countable) Generally, any brass wind instrument.
13. (slang, countable) A telephone.

    Synonyms: blower (UK), dog and bone (Cockney rhyming slang), phone

    Get him on the horn so that we can have a discussion about this.

14. (vulgar, slang, with definite article) An erection of the penis.

    Synonyms: boner (US), hard-on, stiffy

15. (countable, geography) A peninsula or projecting tract of land.

    Synonyms: peninsula

    to navigate around the horn

    • 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:

      But nowhere are there queerer waters than in our own parish of Caulds, at the place called the Sker Bay, where between two horns of land a shallow estuary receives the stream of the Sker.

16. (countable) A diacritical mark that may be attached to the top right corner of the letters o and u when writing in Vietnamese, thus forming ơ and ư.
17. (botany) An incurved, tapering and pointed appendage found in the flowers of the milkweed (Asclepias).
18. (military) In naval mine warfare, a projection from the mine shell of some contact mines which, when broken or bent by contact, causes the mine to fire.

• French: corne
• German: Horn
• Italian: corno
• Portuguese: chifre, corno
• Russian: рог
• Spanish: cuerno, (Bolivia) cacho, asta

• Russian: рог
• Spanish: cuerno

• French: corne
• German: Horn
• Italian: corno
• Portuguese: corno, chifre
• Russian: рог
• Spanish: queratina

• Russian: рог
• Spanish: cuerno

• French: cor
• German: Waldhorn French horn, Horn
• Italian: corno
• Portuguese: trompa
• Russian: рожо́к
• Spanish: viento

• German: Jagdhorn hunting horn, Horn
• Italian: corno
• Portuguese: corno, corneta
• Russian: гудо́к
• Spanish: cuerno, corneta

• French: klaxon
• German: Hupe
• Italian: clacson
• Portuguese: buzina
• Russian: клаксо́н
• Spanish: (Argentina) bocina, (Mexico) claxon, (Venezuela) corneta, (Cuba) fotuto, (Colombia) pito

• German: Horn, Trichter
• Spanish: bocina

• French: cuivres
• German: Blech

• German: Muschel

• German: Ständer

horn (horns, present participle horning; simple past and past participle horned)

1. (transitive, of an animal) To assault with the horns.
2. (transitive) To furnish with horns.
3. (transitive, slang, obsolete) To cuckold.

1. Cape Horn, at the southern tip of South America.

   Sailing around the Horn was an arduous journey for sailing ships.

2. The Horn of Africa, a peninsula of Africa which juts into the Arabian Sea.
   • 1978, War in the Horn of Africa, report of the United States Fact-Finding Mission to Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya, page 4:

     At the same time, it would be erroneous to exaggerate U.S. interests, to overreact to political developments in the Horn, or to adopt imprudent policies based on emotional reactions to Soviet and Cuban involvement.

• Horn peninsula
• Horn of Africa
• Horn region

1. Surname.
2. A former civil parish in Rutland, England, abolished in 2016 on the formation of Exton and Horn parish.
3. An unincorporated community in Dawes County, Nebraska.