Goose bumps is an informal term for what happens when your hair stands up, such as when you’re cold or scared.

It’s also commonly spelled goosebumps. It’s also called goose pimples, gooseflesh, or goose skin.

Technical terms for it are horripilation, piloerection, and cutis anserina. The verb horripilate means to trigger horripilation—to give someone goose bumps, as in Horror stories have the power to horripilate the viewer. It can also mean to experience horripilation—to get goose bumps.

Another way of saying you have goose bumps is to say that your hair is standing on end. Goose bumps are most noticeable in places where we don’t have much hair or the hair is very fine, such as the arms and neck. Sometimes, it just appears as raised bumps on the skin. These bumps are said to resemble those on the skin of a goose that has had its feathers plucked, hence the name goose bumps.

Goose bumps are most commonly associated with their appearance due to cold or scary situations, but you can also get goose bumps from being wowed by something, such as a beautiful singing performance. The term can be used in a figurative way to refer to such a feeling, similar to the chills. Or it can refer to a creepy feeling, as in That abandoned house gives me goose bumps. Similar terms are the creeps, the heebie-jeebies, and the willies.

The term is known for its use in the title of the Goosebumps series of scary stories for kids by R. L. Stine.

Example: The kids are shivering and they have goose bumps, but they still want to play outside in the cold.

Did you mean goose bumps?