ugly
ug·ly/ˈʌɡli/adjective, noun, verb
ugly is spelled U-G-L-Y: 4 letters and 2 syllables (ug·ly). It appears 26 times per million words in written English, the 3,479th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, ugly means “Displeasing to the eye; aesthetically unpleasing” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in ugly?
| Letters | 4: U-G-L-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: ug·ly |
| In writing | 26 times per million words; the 3,479th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Sounds like | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is ugly?
Ugly appears 26 times per million words in written English, the 3,479th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce ugly?
- /ˈʌɡli/
- /ˈɜɡli/
- /ˈɘ̞ɡli/
Ugly has 2 syllables, split ug·ly in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-ugly.ogg, En-us-ugly.ogg, En-us-ugly1.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with ugly
Sounds like: ugli (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with ugly?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as ugly.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: guly.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of ugly
- uglier comparative
- ugliest superlative
- uglies plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- uglying participle, present
- uglied participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does ugly mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Displeasing to the eye; aesthetically unpleasing.
- 2
Displeasing to the ear or some other sense.
- 3
Offensive to one's sensibilities or morality.
He played an ugly trick on us.
- 4
Ill-natured; crossgrained; quarrelsome.
an ugly temper; to feel ugly
- 5
derogatoryUnpleasant; disagreeable; likely to cause trouble or loss.
an ugly customer, wound or rumor
noun
- 1
slangUgliness.
- 2
slangAn ugly person or thing.
- 3
informalAny product whose size and shape prevents it from fitting neatly on a pallet.
- 4
UKdatedinformalA shade for the face, projecting from a bonnet.
verb
- 1
nonstandardTo make ugly (sometimes with up).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Ugly in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | laid, moche, vilain |
| German | hässlich, häßlich (pre-1996), unschön , Bratze, Kackbratze, Schreckschraube |
| Portuguese | feio |
| Spanish | feo , callo, callo malayo, fea |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does ugly come from?
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.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).