Added 6 October 2026
ugly
/ˈʌɡli/ adjective
In Latin: dēfōrmis, foedus, turpis Wiktionary
adjective Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about ugly at Wordnik → Where our words come from →
- Displeasing to the eye; aesthetically unpleasing.
- Displeasing to the ear or some other sense.
-
Offensive to one's sensibilities or morality.
He played an ugly trick on us.
noun
verb
- To make ugly (sometimes with up).
Origin
Inherited from Middle English ugly, uggely, uglike, borrowed from Old Norse uggligr (“fearful, dreadful, horrible in appearance”), from uggr (“fear, apprehension, dread”) (possibly related to agg (“strife, hate”)), equivalent to ug + -ly. Cognate with Scots ugly, uglie, Icelandic ugglegur. Meaning softened to "very unpleasant to look at" around the late 14th century, and sense of "morally offensive" attested from around 1300. For the meaning development compare Bulgarian грозен (grozen) (< Proto-Slavic *grozьnъ), Russian стра́шный (strášnyj) (< Proto-Slavic *strašьnъ < *straxъ); Latin foedus (< Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyh₂-).
From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)