# ugly

> English word · Adjective · IPA /ˈʌɡli/ · frequency rank #3,535

## Definitions
1. Displeasing to the eye; aesthetically unpleasing.
2. Displeasing to the ear or some other sense.
3. Offensive to one's sensibilities or morality.
4. Ill-natured; crossgrained; quarrelsome.
5. Unpleasant; disagreeable; likely to cause trouble or loss.

## Etymology
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-).

## Easily confused with
- **URL** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/ugly-vs-url)
- **Ulm** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/ugly-vs-ulm)
- **UNLV** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/ugly-vs-unlv)
- **Utley** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/ugly-vs-utley)
- **ug** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/ug-vs-ugly)
- **ugh** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/ugh-vs-ugly)
- **UGA** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/uga-vs-ugly)
- **UCLA** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/ucla-vs-ugly)

## Common misspellings (6)
`guly`, `uggly`, `uglly`, `uglyy`, `ugyl`, `ulgy`

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