How to spell horrible

hear ithor·ri·ble/'hɔrəbəl/adjectiveSchwa and roots

What it means: Very bad, unpleasant, or disagreeable.

In a sentence: The witch made a horrible potion that smelled bad.

The part people get wrong

Watch for double r, and an unstressed vowel that is hard to hear. Often misspelled as horible or horable.

Same family: horribly, horrific, horrify, horrified, horrifying. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Horrible” comes from the Latin word *horribilis*, from *horrere*, meaning “to bristle” or “to shiver,” like when your hair stands up because you are very scared. It is closely related to the noun “horror,” which originally described that intense shivering feeling of fear or disgust.

Patterns it uses: -able or -ible? · The unstressed vowel (schwa)

Try spelling it

You will hear the word and a sentence. Type it and press Enter. Then four more words from the same level, so you know where you stand.

Words like this

negligible · eligible · invincible · legible · sensible · invisible · tangible · edible

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