comely
Americanadjective
-
pleasing in appearance; attractive; fair.
a comely face.
- Synonyms:
- personable, good-looking, beautiful, handsome, pretty
-
comely behavior.
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of comely
First recorded before 1000; Middle English cumli, Old English cȳmlīc “lovely,” equivalent to cȳme “exquisite” (cognate with Middle High German kūme “weak, tender,” German kaum (adverb) “with difficulty,” Old High German kūmo ) + -līc -ly
Explanation
Comely means attractive or appropriate. A comely girl is pretty. A comely hairstyle is flattering. If your manners are comely, it means you know the right way to act to put people at their ease. Comely is related to the word becoming, in the sense of something's being attractive and appropriate––you're comely wearing that becoming blouse, the way she told the story was becoming to a comely young lady. Comely is the opposite of the similar-looking homely, which means plain-looking, almost ugly.
Vocabulary lists containing comely
"The Bet" by Anton Chekhov
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The Picture of Dorian Gray
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Much Ado About Nothing
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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:
As for the pictures, they’re shrouded in ominous shadows, but although the raven’s eyes burn like embers, the bird does nothing worse than cry “nevermore,” and Lenore, when she appears, looks downright comely.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2025
And it actually worked, thanks to its comely co-stars and a little help — OK, a lot of help — from TikTok.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 24, 2024
Was she too fancy to have her dental work performed by a comely rattlesnake in the Badlands, as is custom in South Dakota?
From Slate ● Mar. 16, 2024
"You are the most comely girl at court," her father tells her.
From Salon ● Sep. 4, 2022
The old man ... no one would ever think him comely.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
It was like a Louis C. K. bit in a much comelier frame.
From New York Times ● Nov. 9, 2012
Colby dreamed of moving to a comelier, 650-acre site on Mayflower Hill, outside Waterville.
From Time Magazine Archive
“That’s like her. Well, you look it,” and Jo’s eye plainly betrayed that she found her boy comelier than ever.
From "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott
The unnamed peaks towering over the glacier were bigger and comelier and infinitely more menacing than they would have been were I in the company of another person.
From "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer
Maxen Wledig was emperor of Rome, and he was a comelier man, and a better and a wiser than any emperor that had been before him.
From The Mabinogion Vol. 2 by Sir Owen Morgan Edwards
The phantom that haunts the eccentric Japanese rock opera “Inu-oh” is not the comeliest of creatures — not at first, anyway.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2022
In Die Meistersinger last week the Eva was one of the comeliest young women who has ever made an operatic debut.
From Time Magazine Archive
And the chorus whom these trappings adorn are the comeliest that have stretched the necks of metropolitan audiences this year.
From Time Magazine Archive
Of the daughters of Dwight Whitney Morrow, Constance, 16, is the comeliest; Anne, 24, the most famed; Elisabeth, 27, the liveliest.
From Time Magazine Archive
Like other solar heroes, he grew very rapidly; when he was four he was as big as if he were eight, and the comeliest youth that ever was seen.
From Myths & Legends of the Celtic Race by T. W. (Thomas William) Rolleston
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
