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
Described as "the most comely woman in the Seven Kingdoms," Hightower has both "courtly grace and a keen political acumen."
From Salon ● Dec. 12, 2020
For he recognized that Jackson Park had something no other city in the world could equal: the spreading blue plain of Lake Michigan, as comely a backdrop for a fair as anyone could hope for.
From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
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
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
“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
Like a healthy animal recovering from hardship, she was growing plumper and comelier under their very eyes.
From His Unknown Wife by Tracy, Louis
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
One of the comeliest beauty queens of the Orient, Sirikit Kitiyakara, who is also Queen of Thailand, turned up to open a new hospital in Bangkok, enchanted her subjects with her quiet charm.
From Time Magazine Archive
Since then the Misses Spencer, whose news value is not lessened by the fact that they are two of Chicago's comeliest young girls, have been well publicized by their headline-hunting parent.
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
Next came His son, young Lausus, comeliest of the host, Save Turnus—Lausus, who the steed could tame, And quell wild beasts and track the woodland game.
From The Æneid of Virgil Translated into English Verse by E. Fairfax Taylor by Taylor, Edward Fairfax
Definitions 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.
