Horizon
noun ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 The visible horizontal line (in all directions) where the sky appears to meet the earth in the distance.
"A tall building was visible on the whole sweep of the horizon."
- 2 the range of interest or activity that can be anticipated wordnet
- 3 The range or limit of one's knowledge, experience or interest; a boundary or threshold. figuratively
"Some students take a gap year after finishing high school to broaden their horizons."
- 4 the line at which the sky and Earth appear to meet wordnet
- 5 The range or limit of any dimension in which one exists.
"Only mortality, this irreducible and primordial horizon, that very horizon which, in Being and Time, Heidegger so compellingly revealed as the unsurpassable and defining possibility, remains."
Show 6 more definitions
- 6 the great circle on the celestial sphere whose plane passes through the sensible horizon and the center of the Earth wordnet
- 7 A specific layer of soil, or stratum
- 8 a specific layer or stratum of soil or subsoil in a vertical cross section of land wordnet
- 9 A cultural sub-period or level within a more encompassing time period. US
- 10 Any level line or surface.
- 11 The point at which a computer chess algorithm stops searching for further moves.
Example
More examples"Death is only a horizon, and a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight."
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English orisonte, orisoun, from Middle French horizon, horizonte, from Old French orisonte, orison, via Latin horizōn, from Ancient Greek ὁρίζων (horízōn), from ὅρος (hóros, “boundary”).
Related phrases
More for "horizon"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.