ungraceful

C2+ Topic:Describing Qualities

US /ʌnˈɡreɪsfəl/ UK /ʌnˈɡreɪsfəl/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

adj
lacking grace or elegance; clumsy

He made an ungraceful landing after the jump.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 adj · lacking grace or elegance;... clumsy awkward inelegant ungainly gauche gawky stiff

Opposites

graceful elegant lithe poised fluid

Word family

Derived forms ungracefullyungracefulness

Related forms grace graceful gracious

Etymology

From un- ('not') + graceful, from grace (from Old French grace, from Latin gratia 'favor, charm', from gratus 'pleasing') + -ful.

un- Old English gratia Latin gratus Latin *gʷerH- Proto-Indo-European

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Describing Qualities Word Formation & Derivatives

External links

# ungraceful

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** adj
**IPA (US):** /ʌnˈɡreɪsfəl/
**IPA (UK):** /ʌnˈɡreɪsfəl/

## Meanings
1. lacking grace or elegance; clumsy

## Examples
- He made an ungraceful landing after the jump.

## Synonyms
- clumsy
- awkward
- inelegant
- ungainly
- gauche
- gawky
- stiff

## Antonyms
- graceful
- elegant
- lithe
- poised
- fluid

## Derived Forms
- ungracefully
- ungracefulness

## Related Forms
- grace
- graceful
- gracious

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: un-
- Root: gratia
- Root: gratus
- Root: *gʷerH-

## Etymology
From un- ('not') + graceful, from grace (from Old French grace, from Latin gratia 'favor, charm', from gratus 'pleasing') + -ful.

## AI Etymology
Ungraceful comes from un- ('not') + graceful, from grace (from Old French grace, from Latin gratia 'favor, charm', from gratus 'pleasing') + -ful. The historical chain includes Old English un-, Latin gratia, Latin gratus, and Proto-Indo-European *gʷerH-. The quoted older senses, "not", "favor, charm", and "pleasing", supply the semantic anchors for ungraceful. The formation is best read as suffixal, compound, and borrowed: the word ungraceful carries its older form-history into a compact English lexical shape. In present English it is used as a adj, "lacking grace or elegance; clumsy". English derivatives include ungracefully and ungracefulness; related English forms include grace, graceful, and gracious. The result is a adj whose etymology preserves both the older form and the later English specialization.

## Topics
- Describing Qualities
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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