horror vs shock

horror

noun
  • An intense distressing emotion of fear or repugnance. 

  • A genre of fiction designed to evoke a feeling of fear and suspense. 

  • An individual work in this genre. 

  • Delirium tremens. 

  • A nasty or ill-behaved person; a rascal or terror. 

  • Intense dislike or aversion; an abhorrence. 

  • Something horrible; that which excites horror. 

  • An intense anxiety or a nervous depression; often the horrors. 

shock

noun
  • A state of distress following a mental or emotional disturbance. 

  • Electric shock, a sudden burst of electrical energy hitting a person or animal. 

  • Circulatory shock, a medical emergency characterized by the inability of the circulatory system to supply enough oxygen to meet tissue requirements. 

  • A shock absorber (typically in the suspension of a vehicle). 

  • A chemical added to a swimming pool to moderate the chlorine levels. 

  • An arrangement of sheaves for drying; a stook. 

  • A sudden or violent mental or emotional disturbance. 

  • A sudden, heavy impact. 

  • A tuft or bunch of something, such as hair or grass. 

  • Something so surprising that it is stunning. 

  • A discontinuity arising in the solution of a partial differential equation. 

  • A shock wave. 

verb
  • To give an electric shock to. 

  • To subject to a shock wave or violent impact. 

  • To cause to be emotionally shocked; to cause (someone) to feel surprised and upset. 

  • To add a chemical to (a swimming pool) to moderate the chlorine levels. 

  • To collect, or make up, into a shock or shocks; to stook. 

adj
  • Causing intense surprise, horror, etc.; unexpected and shocking. 

How often have the words horror and shock occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )