ugly
Americanadjective
-
uglier,
comparative
-
ugliest
superlative
-
very unattractive or unpleasant to look at; offensive to the sense of beauty; displeasing in appearance.
- Synonyms:
- homely, unlovely, unsightly, uncomely, hard-featured, ill-favored
- Antonyms:
- beautiful
-
disagreeable; unpleasant; objectionable.
ugly tricks;
ugly discords.
-
morally revolting.
ugly crime.
-
threatening trouble or danger.
ugly symptoms.
- Synonyms:
- ominous, disadvantageous
-
mean; hostile; quarrelsome.
an ugly mood;
an ugly frame of mind.
-
(especially of natural phenomena) unpleasant or dangerous.
ugly weather;
an ugly sea.
- Synonyms:
- tempestuous, stormy
adjective
-
of unpleasant or unsightly appearance
-
repulsive, objectionable, or displeasing in any way
war is ugly
-
ominous or menacing
an ugly situation
-
bad-tempered, angry, or sullen
an ugly mood
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of ugly
First recorded in 1200–50; Middle English ugly, uglike, from Old Norse uggligr “fearful, dreadful,” equivalent to ugg(r) “fear” + -ligr -ly
Explanation
Ugly means "extremely unattractive." On Halloween, some people wear ugly masks as part of their scary costumes. Anything that looks or feels quite unpleasant is ugly. The adjective ugly can describe the way something or someone looks, but it can also describe behavior or actions — the ugly scene your little brother made at the toy store when he didn't get what he wanted or the ugly breakup of a friendship. Remember that when ugly becomes uglier and ugliest, the y becomes an i.
Vocabulary lists containing ugly
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
When enough bad news is already baked into an asset’s price, investor positioning can become so negative that even another ugly headline struggles to push it lower.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 16, 2026
For Rock, Eleazar, despite being British, embodied the story he wanted to tell about the ugly truth of Los Angeles.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026
It taught me to always give music a chance, no matter how ugly the art or how crusty the jewel case.
From Salon ● Oct. 4, 2026
London games tend to be ugly and low-scoring.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
It was just such an ugly thing to do.
From "The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams" by Daniel Nayeri
Because, lately, the more expensive Ferraris are, the uglier they get.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 26, 2026
Eventually, the noise came back, and the national sense of shared shock and grief morphed into something uglier, hardier, and less focused.
From Slate ● Sep. 11, 2026
But uglier nooks are frozen in time as well.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026
Things could well get uglier before they get better for England.
From BBC ● Mar. 7, 2026
Always they were the scrawniest or the ugliest or the dirtiest or the stupidest boys, picked on by everyone else, with no one left uglier or stupider than they but her.
From "The Midwife's Apprentice" by Karen Cushman
By far the ugliest commotion was a tweet from a political figure many of us were fortunate to be unfamiliar with, Texas Railroad Commission candidate Bo French.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026
Still, the settlement agreement bars either side from appealing Liman’s ruling, potentially drawing one of Hollywood’s ugliest recent legal fights to a close.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 12, 2026
"If you want to see how safe El Salvador is, go to the ugliest, darkest place, sit on a rock, and wait for dawn," the president boasts.
From Barron's ● Feb. 24, 2026
The pair clearly reinforce each other’s ugliest tendencies.
From Salon ● Feb. 18, 2026
There was one set of HoJo toiletries left out by the sink, next to the world’s ugliest coffeemaker.
From "The Darkest Minds" by Alexandra Bracken
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
