Horn, Philip de Montmorency, count of: see Hoorn, Philip de Montmorency, count of.

Horn, Cape, headland, 1,391 ft (424 m) high, S Chile, southernmost point of South America, in the archipelago of Tierra del Fuego. It was discovered and first rounded by Willem Schouten, the Dutch navigator, on Jan. 29, 1616, and named for Hoorn in the Netherlands. Lashing storms and strong currents made "rounding the Horn" one of the great hazards of sailing-ship days. With its cold and windy climate, it is still a formidable challenge to navigation.

Horn: see King Horn.

horn, in symphonic and chamber music: see French horn.

horn, in zoology, one of a pair of structures projecting from the head of a hoofed animal, used chiefly as a weapon. In cattle, sheep, Old World antelopes, and related animals the horns are permanent and unbranched and are usually present in both sexes. They are composed of a sheath of keratin—a tough fibrous material derived from epithelial tissue—overlying a bony core projecting from the skull. In the deer family the branched structures, called antlers, are composed entirely of bone with no actual horn substance; they are usually present only in the male and are shed annually. The horns of the pronghorn have characteristics of both true horns and antlers. Rhinoceros horns are not true horn but greatly modified hair, derived entirely from the epidermis. Horns have long been used for many purposes, e.g., drinking cups, spoons, trumpets, containers for gunpowder, and combs. Carved pieces of horn have been found dating from prehistoric times. In art and religion horns symbolize power. The "horns of the altar" (Amos 3.14) symbolized divine protection. Hornlike protuberances appear on other animals, e.g., on the horned toad and the horned pout.

Orchestral and military brass instrument, a valved circular horn with a wide bell. It is normally a transposing instrument (its music written in a different tone than its actual sound) in F. It has a wide bore and three (sometimes four) rotary valves; its conical mouthpiece produces a mellower tone than the cup-shaped mouthpieces of other brass instruments. Horns long relied on separable crooks—circular lengths of tubing that could be attached and removed rapidly—for music modulating to new keys. Since circa 1900 the standard horn has been a “double” instrument, with built-in crooks in F and B-flat that can be selected rapidly by means of a thumb valve. The modern symphony orchestra usually includes four horns. Though difficult to play and prone to producing conspicuous errors, its tone is widely admired.

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Southern extremity of South America. Located on Horn Island in the southern Tierra del Fuego archipelago, it projects south into Drake Passage. It was named Hoorn for the birthplace of Dutch navigator Willem Schouten, who rounded it in 1616. Navigation of the rough waters around the cape is hazardous, and the climate is windy and cold year-round.

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Most important Norse goddess, one of a group of fertility deities called Vanir. Her father was the sea god Njörd, and her brother and male counterpart was Freyr. She was the goddess of battle and death as well as love and fertility. Half the heroes slain in battle went to her domain, Folkvangr, the other half to Odin's Valhalla. She taught a powerful magic to the Aesir, probably involving sexuality.

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Orchestral woodwind instrument, a large oboe pitched a 5th below the ordinary oboe. It has a bent metal crook, to hold the double reed, and a bulbous bell. It is a transposing instrument (its music written in a different tone than it actually sounds) in F. It is neither English nor a horn; in its original name, cor anglais, cor (“horn”) referred to its original hornlike curved shape, but the source of anglais (“English”) is a mystery. It has remained a basically orchestral instrument since its first appearance circa 1750.

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Southern extremity of South America. Located on Horn Island in the southern Tierra del Fuego archipelago, it projects south into Drake Passage. It was named Hoorn for the birthplace of Dutch navigator Willem Schouten, who rounded it in 1616. Navigation of the rough waters around the cape is hazardous, and the climate is windy and cold year-round.

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Horn may refer to:

• Horn (anatomy), the pointed projection of the skin of various animals, as an organ or its material
• Horn (surname)

In music and sound

• Horn (instrument), sometimes called a "French horn," a brass musical instrument constructed of coiled tubing
• Horn section of a band or orchestra
• Blowing horn, winding horn or age-old rudimentary sound device
• Horn (acoustic), an open-ended tapered sound-guide
• horn speaker, a loudspeaker
• Bullhorn, or Megaphone, a device used to amplify one's voice
• Bukkehorn, ancient Norwegian musical instrument
• Train horn, for use on diesel and electric locomotives, as opposed to a steam whistle.
• Foghorn, navigation aid for mariners
• Car horn, or Klaxon, also used on trains and ships
• A Shofar. A ritual horn in the Jewish religion.
• A Dungchen. A ritual horn used in Tibetan Buddhism.

In geography

• Horn of Africa, Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti
• Cape Horn, the southernmost point of South America
• Horn, Austria
• Horn (district) in Austria
• Horn (Netherlands), a village in the municipality of Haelen
• Horn, Rutland, a small civil parish in England
• Horn, Switzerland
• Glacial horn, a sharp pyramidal peak on a mountain, created by glacial erosion
• Horn, Germany, a municipality in the district of Rhein-Hunsrück in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
• Horn, Sweden

In science

• Horn (telecommunications), an open-ended radio waveguide of increasing cross-sectional area
• Horn (telescope), a stationary radio telescope
• Horn Antenna, constructed, to support Project Echo, and used in the discovery of Cosmic microwave background radiation
• Horn clause in mathematical logic.

In fiction and mythology

• Gjallarhorn, the sounding horn or ringing horn of the god Heimdall, used to announce Ragnarok
• King Horn, a 13th century Middle English romance story.
• Horn of Gondor carried by Boromir in the Lord Of The Rings
• Horn (Chinese constellation), a constellation in Chinese astronomy, known as one of the Eastern mansions of the Azure Dragon
• Hörn, another name for the goddess Freyja in Norse mythology.

In slang usage

• Hook 'em Horns is a hand gesture expressing support for the above teams
• "Horn" is military jargon for a telephone, as in "Get on the horn"
• "Horns" is a shortened version of Texas Longhorns, the sports teams of the University of Texas in Austin
• "Devil horns" is a hand gesture, the Corna, with a vulgar meaning in Mediterranean countries, also used in heavy metal
• "Horned" and variants can mean cuckolded.
• Horn, a baseball Hat-trick, when a player strikes out six times in one game.

In other uses

• Around the Horn, ESPN sports program
• Horn clause, a term in formal logic
• Drinking horn, an ancient drinking vessel
• Anointing horn, used for the unction at a coronation
• Horn (diacritic), a diacritic mark used to indicate that a normally rounded vowel such as o or u is to be pronounced unrounded
• Horn-rimmed glasses
• Horn, a smoking pipe shaped like a bull's horn or as a bent cone, as described in Sherlock Holmes stories
• Horn of Plenty, or Cornucopia, also known as the Horn of Amalthea

See also

• Hoorn, city in the Netherlands
• Horne, disambiguation page
• Horny, disambiguation page
• Corne, French word for horn