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:
Perhaps, in an alternate timeline, Cadillac’s comely and contemporary, two-row SUV might have struggled to find a wider audience.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 16, 2026
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
The bit was funny enough, but I was aware while watching it that it wouldn't have worked at all if Colbert had been putting a comely actress through the paces.
From Salon ● Mar. 30, 2023
It may well be imagined what emotions passed through my breast when I saw Dr. Trefusis’s goal: the comely girl who sang such exquisite arias.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
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
For him, he was full calm: stately as his father—he was comelier of the twain, yea, the goodliest man ever mine eyes lit on: but I thought not on that in that hour.
From In Convent Walls The Story of the Despensers by M. (Madelaine) Irwin
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
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
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
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
“Truly, the isle is better accommodated at this present,” saith he, and smiled one of the comeliest smiles ever saw I on a man’s face.
From Joyce Morrell's Harvest The Annals of Selwick Hall by Emily Sarah Holt
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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.
