horror story

noun

: an account of an unsettling or unfortunate occurrence

heard horror stories about recent layoffs

also : something unsettling or unfortunate

his childhood was a horror story

Examples of horror story in a Sentence

We've all heard horror stories about airlines losing people's luggage.

Her childhood was a horror story.

Recent Examples on the Web

A whole lot of other stuff has added more static: trade deadlines; robot umps; salary caps; the distraction of analytics; horror stories about high school kids getting Tommy John surgery; the seemingly constant threat of player lockouts; and the dangerous dance the sport is playing with gambling. —Paul Dickson, Baltimore Sun, 12 Aug. 2025

Or workshop horror stories with a Stephen King bot. —Gene Maddaus, Variety, 23 July 2025

Roth recently launched a production company called The Horror Section that will produce and distribute horror stories across a variety of media. —Rick Porter, HollywoodReporter, 31 July 2025

Carrington had her own horror story of the Second World War. —Celia Bell july 22, Literary Hub, 22 July 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1937, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for horror story

• allegory
• amatory
• auditory
• category
• clerestory
• crematory
• desultory
• dilatory
• dormitory
• excretory
• extempore
• feudatory