ugly

B1 Topic:Describing Qualities

US /ˈʌɡli/ See IPA manual

Freq #1663

Meanings

1

adj
Unpleasant to look at; not beautiful.

They painted the ugly old fence a bright color.
2

adj
Unpleasant, threatening, or likely to cause trouble.

The argument quickly turned ugly.
3

adj
Morally offensive or shocking.

He played an ugly trick on his friends.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 adj · unpleasant to look at; not... hideous unattractive unsightly

3 adj · morally offensive or shocking. vile immoral

More bad beatbutt-uglybutters clapped deformfuckfacedfuglyplug-uglyunpretty

Opposites

attractive beautiful comely good-looking gorgeous handsome moral nice pleasing prettysightly

Word family

Forms uglierugliest

Derived forms fuglyuggougliuglificationuglifyuglily

Related forms ugugliness

Appears in

Proverbs (2)

See all

Simplified etymology

Ugly entered English in the 13th century from Old Norse uggligr, “to be dreaded.” It initially meant “frightful” or “horrible,” a stronger sense than its usual modern meaning.

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English ugly, uggely, uglike, borrowed from Old Norse uggligr (“fearful, dreadful, horrible in appearance”), from uggr (“fear, apprehension, dread”) (possibly related to agg (“strife, hate”)), equivalent to ug + -ly. Cognate with Scots ugly, uglie, Icelandic ugglegur. Meaning softened to "very unpleasant to look at" around the late 14th century, and sense of "morally offensive" attested from around 1300. For the meaning development compare Bulgarian грозен (grozen) (< Proto-Slavic *grozьnъ), Russian стра́шный (strášnyj) (< Proto-Slavic *strašьnъ < *straxъ); Latin foedus (…

ugly Middle English uggligr Old Norse

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Describing Qualities

External links

# ugly

**Type:** Word
**Level:** B1
**Part of speech:** adj
**IPA (US):** /ˈʌɡli/
**Frequency rank:** 1663

## Meanings
1. Unpleasant to look at; not beautiful.
2. Unpleasant, threatening, or likely to cause trouble.
3. Morally offensive or shocking.

## Examples
- They painted the ugly old fence a bright color.
- The argument quickly turned ugly.
- He played an ugly trick on his friends.

## Synonyms
- bad
- beat
- butt-ugly
- butters
- clapped
- deform
- fuckfaced
- fugly
- plug-ugly
- unpretty

## Antonyms
- attractive
- beautiful
- comely
- good-looking
- gorgeous
- handsome
- moral
- nice
- pleasing
- pretty
- sightly

## Derived Forms
- fugly
- uggo
- ugli
- uglification
- uglify
- uglily

## Related Forms
- ug
- ugliness

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: ugly
- Root: uggligr

## Etymology
Inherited from Middle English ugly, uggely, uglike, borrowed from Old Norse uggligr (“fearful, dreadful, horrible in appearance”), from uggr (“fear, apprehension, dread”) (possibly related to agg (“strife, hate”)), equivalent to ug + -ly. Cognate with Scots ugly, uglie, Icelandic ugglegur. Meaning softened to "very unpleasant to look at" around the late 14th century, and sense of "morally offensive" attested from around 1300. For the meaning development compare Bulgarian грозен (grozen) (< Proto-Slavic *grozьnъ), Russian стра́шный (strášnyj) (< Proto-Slavic *strašьnъ < *straxъ); Latin foedus (…

## AI Etymology
Ugly is inherited from Middle English ugly, uggely, uglike, borrowed from Old Norse uggligr (“fearful, dreadful, horrible in appearance”), from uggr (“fear, apprehension, dread”) (possibly related to agg (“strife, hate”)), equivalent to ug + -ly. Cognate with Scots ugly, uglie, Icelandic ugglegur. Meaning softened to "very unpleasant to look at" around the late 14th century, and sense of "morally offensive" attested from around 1300. In present-day use, it can mean unpleasant to look at; not beautiful, or unpleasant, threatening, or likely to cause trouble.

## Topics
- Describing Qualities

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