horse
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A hoofed mammal, Equus ferus caballus, often used throughout history for riding and draft work.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
hawrsIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈhɔɹs
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A hoofed mammal, Equus ferus caballus, often used throughout history for riding and draft work.
In gymnastics, a piece of equipment with a body on two or four legs, approximately four feet high, sometimes (pommel horse) with two handles on top.
A padded gymnastic apparatus on legs
A frame with legs, used to support something.
A rope stretching along a yard, upon which men stand when reefing or furling the sails; footrope.
An iron bar for a sheet traveller to slide upon.
verb
transitive
To play mischievous pranks on.
To place (someone) on the back of another person, or on a wooden horse, chair, etc., to be flogged or punished.
To take or carry on the back.
transitive
To pull, haul, or move (something) with great effort, like a horse would.
informal
To cram (food) quickly, indiscriminately or in great volume.
To sit astride of; to bestride.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner (estimated)
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A hoofed mammal, Equus ferus caballus, often used throughout history for riding and draft work.
Used this way, horse is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in historical writing contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Historical writing
Nearby words
- cavalry , a specialist term, precise but narrower
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use horse
- “A majestic horse galloped freely across the open field.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A wheeled vehicle drawn by one or more horses.
A person who breeds and cares for horses.
Large swift fly the female of which sucks blood of various animals.
Coarse weedy American perennial herb with large usually perfoliate leaves and purple or dull red flowers.
Twining herb of Old World tropics cultivated in India for food and fodder.
Twining herb of Old World tropics cultivated in India for food and fodder.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
The back of a horse.
The hoof of a horse.
The sport of sitting on the back of a horse while controlling its movements.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: hoofed mammal or Equus ferus caballus
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.