# comely

> English word · Adjective · IPA /ˈkʌmli/ · frequency rank #62,060

## Definitions
1. Attractive; visually pleasing; good-looking.
2. Attractive; visually pleasing; good-looking.
3. Attractive; visually pleasing; good-looking.
4. Pleasing to the feelings or senses; agreeable, nice, pleasant.

## Etymology
The adjective is derived from Middle English comly, comli, cumly, cumlich (“of a person: beautiful, handsome, etc.; of noble birth, bearing, or character; of behaviour: appropriate, becoming; of an event: convenient; favourable; of a thing: beautiful, wonderful; fitting, proper”), from Old English cymlīċ, cȳmlīċ (“beautiful, comely; splendid; convenient”), from cȳme (“beautiful, comely; splendid; exquisite, fine”) + -līċ (suffix meaning ‘like; relating to’ forming adjectives). Cȳme is derived from Proto-Germanic *kūmiz (“delicate; feeble”), from *kūmalīkaz (“dear; pitiful”), probably related to *kūmaz, *kūmijaz (“pitiful; frail, weak”), from Proto-Indo-European *gewH- (“to call, name; to call on, invoke; to cry, cry out”). The word was influenced by come (verb).
The verb is derived from the adjective.
Cognates
Middle Dutch komelick, komlick
Middle High German gomelīh, komelīh

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/comely