Horizon Meaning
/həˈɹaɪ.zən/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounThe visible horizontal line (in all directions) where the sky appears to meet the earth in the distance.
nounThe range or limit of one's knowledge, experience or interest; a boundary or threshold.
Sentence Examples
The ocean melted into the sky on the horizon.
By and by the moon appeared on the horizon.
The sun sank below the horizon.
CEFR Practice Quiz
After climbing the hill, we saw the sun set on the distant ____.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The sun began to set slowly behind the distant ____, painting the sky in vibrant colors.
Word Origin & History
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”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"It is because theirs has become the only explicit general philosophy of social policy held by a large group, the only system or theory which raises new problems and opens new horizons, that they have succeeded in inspiring the imagination of the intellectual."
— 1949, F. A. Hayek, “The Intellectuals and Socialism”, in University of Chicago Law Review, volume 16, number 3, Chicago: University of Chicago, →DOI, page 428:
"They learn that reading, besides being something one does at school, is also something one can do on one's own, for fun, to satisfy curiosity, or even to "expand one's horizons.”"
— 1972, Mortimer J. Adler, Charles Van Doren, How to Read a Book, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 25:
"The Indians of the Americas totaled no less than 70 million when the foreign conquerors appeared on the horizon; a century and a half later they had been reduced to 3.5 million."
— 1997, Eduardo Galeano, Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent, Monthly Review Press, page 38:
"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."
— 2003, Miguel de Beistegui, Thinking with Heidegger: Displacements, →ISBN, page 157:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
After climbing the hill, we saw the sun set on the distant ____.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The sun began to set slowly behind the distant ____, painting the sky in vibrant colors.