munter

Munter is a British insult for a person, often a woman, who is considered extremely ugly.

How is munter pronounced?

The British munter, first recorded in the 1990s, has an unknown origin, but there are several theories.

One is that munter comes from the Scottish-derived slang minger (“a stinker, stupid person”), also recorded in the 1990s. Another supposes munter came from the early 20th-century South African slang munt or muntu, a racial slur for Black South Africans. Yet another theory connects it to British, Australian, and New Zealand slang munted, meaning “intoxicated” or “destroyed.”

Discussions in the 1990s on a Usenet rave forum supports the munted theory. Users identified munter as early the 1990s as British student slang for a “drug user.” How munter went from “drug user” to “ugly person” is unclear, though it isn’t too hard to draw a line from “intoxicated” to “unpleasant.”

By the 2000s, munter was established as coarse British slang for an “ugly person,” especially a woman, with various colorful, shall we say, descriptions of what a munter looks like on Urban Dictionary.

When you hear munter, expect the speaker to be British. And, expect the object of the insult—often women—to be considered very unattractive.

Smell some unreal perfume turn around and she’s a munter 😭

— Rio upton (@RioUpton) February 26, 2019

And I was right yall he’s a right munter

— tee (@CLIFFORDIDIOT) March 2, 2019

Munter is also sometimes used to humorously describe other hideous things, such as animals or cars.

My dogs so ugly that it’s actually cute how much of a munter he is

— Mattt (@16Matthewc) November 6, 2017

Has to be this Williams with the infamous walrus nose!..An absolute munter of a car! #bbcf1 pic.twitter.com/W1sK9CxwMH

— Steve Martin (@Steve_NW) February 28, 2019

More examples of munter:

“A sexist police sergeant has kept his job despite being found guilty of misconduct for referring to a female job hunter as an ‘ugly munter.’”
—Rhett Allain, Wired, March 2018

This content is not meant to be a formal definition of this term. Rather, it is an informal summary that seeks to provide supplemental information and context important to know or keep in mind about the term’s history, meaning, and usage.