ugly

/[ʌɡli]/ adj

Letters

4 characters

Frequency Rank

#49,317

in German word usage

Misspellings

6

tracked variants

Confusables

7

similar word pairs

ugly is anGermanadj. It means: unangenehm für das Auge; nicht ästhetisch ansprechend Pronounced [ʌɡli]. Often confused with Ulm and URL.

Key facts for ugly
PropertyValue
Headwordugly
LanguageGerman
Part of speechAdj
IPA[ʌɡli]
Letters4
Frequency rank#49,317
Misspellings tracked6
Confusable pairs7
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of ugly in German word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The German entry for ugly is 4 letters long, classified as anadj, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [ʌɡli]. Corpus data places it at rank #49,317 in overall German word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 6 documented wrong-spelling variants for ugly, with forms such as "guly", "uggly", and "uglly". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 7 confusable-pair relationships, "Ulm", "URL", "Ulf", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct German form is ugly, spelled U-G-L-Y, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    unangenehm für das Auge; nicht ästhetisch ansprechend
  2. 2
    unangenehm für das Ohr oder einem anderen Sinn
  3. 3
    seine Gefühle oder die guten Sitten beleidigend

Synonyms

Antonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: guly,uggly,uglly,uglyy,ugyl,ulgy

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for ugly

Misspelling Variants of "ugly"

guly4uggly5uglly5uglyy5ugyl4ulgy4
Misspelling Variants of "ugly"

Frequency rank: #49,317 in German

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "ugly"?
"ugly" is spelled U-G-L-Y. The IPA pronunciation is [ʌɡli].
What does "ugly" mean?
As an adj, "ugly" means: unangenehm für das Auge; nicht ästhetisch ansprechend
What words are commonly confused with "ugly"?
"ugly" is commonly confused with "Ulm", "URL", "Ulf". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "ugly"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "ugly" is [ʌɡli]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "ugly" come from?
"ugly" is a German word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby German words

Other entries that begin with the letter U in our German index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.