Ugly

Synonyms of ugly: hideous, frightful, monstrous, ghastly, horrid, unsightly, gruesome, disfigured, grotesque, and unpicturesque.

1. Hideous (Adj)
-offensive to the senses and especially to sight : exceedingly ugly
-morally offensive : shocking

Examples of hideous
- The room was filled with hideous furniture.
- The hideous way in which she treated her maid after she discovered her ring was missing.
Origin of HIDEOUS

Origin of the word:
alteration of Middle English hidous, from Anglo-French hidus, hisdos, from Old French hisde, hide terror
First Known Use: 14th century

2. Frightful (Adj)
-causing intense fear or alarm : terrifying
-startling especially in being bad or objectionable

Examples of FRIGHTFUL
- As he fell, he let out a frightful scream.
- a frightful illness that causes extreme pain
- The children made a frightful mess of the kitchen.
-Many critics have expressed shock at the song's frightful lyrics.

First Known Use of FRIGHTFUL
1607

3. Monstrous (Adj)
-obsolete : strange, unnatural
-having extraordinary often overwhelming size : gigantic
-having the qualities or appearance of a monster
-obsolete : teeming with monsters
-extraordinarily ugly or vicious : horrible
-shockingly wrong or ridiculous
-deviating greatly from the natural form or character : abnormal

Examples of MONSTROUS
- It was monstrous of him to keep the truth from them all those years.
- A monstrous melon that was clearly not fit to eat.

First Known Use of MONSTROUS
15th century

4. Ghastly (Adj)
-terrifyingly horrible to the senses : frightening
-intensely unpleasant, disagreeable, or objectionable
-resembling a ghost
-obsolete : filled with fear
-a ghastly mistake

Examples of GHASTLY

- You're making a ghastly mistake.
- His room was a ghastly mess.

Origin of GHASTLY
Middle English gastly, from gasten to terrify — more at gast
First Known Use: 14th century

5. Horrid (Adj)
-archaic : rough, bristling
-innately offensive or repulsive:
-inspiring horror : shocking
-inspiring disgust or loathing : nasty or a horrid man
-horrible 2

Examples of HORRID
- People there are living in horrid conditions.
- He's a horrid little man.

Origin of HORRID
Latin horridus, from horrēre
First Known Use: 1590

6. Unsightly (adj)
-not pleasing to the sight : not comely

Examples of UNSIGHTLY
- The cracks in the wall are unsightly.
- Strip-mining leaves an unsightly gash in the landscape.

First Known Use of UNSIGHTLY
15th century

7. Gruesome (Adj)
-inspiring horror or repulsion : grisly

Examples of GRUESOME
- The police report described the scene in gruesome detail.
- Didn't stick around to hear the gruesome details of the car accident.

Origin of GRUESOME
alteration of earlier growsome, from English dialect grow, grue to shiver, from Middle English gruen, probably from Middle Dutch grūwen; akin to Old High German ingrūēn to shiver
First Known Use: circa 1700


8. Disfigured (Adj)
-to impair (as in beauty) by deep and persistent injuries a face disfigured by smallpox>
-obsolete : disguise

Examples of DISFIGURE
- His face was disfigured by a scar.
- The statue was seriously disfigured by falling rubble during the earthquake.

Origin of DISFIGURE
Middle English, from Anglo-French desfigurer, from des- dis- + figure figure
First Known Use: 14th century


9. Grotesque (Adj)
-of, relating to, or having the characteristics of the grotesque: as
-fanciful, bizarre
-absurdly incongruous
-departing markedly from the natural, the expected, or the typical

Examples of GROTESQUE
- The actors wore dark capes and grotesque masks.
- A grotesque distortion of the facts

First Known Use of GROTESQUE
1603


10. Unpicturesque
-displeasing to the senses
- ugly face

Examples of UNPICTURESQUE
- His candor in depicting how unpicturesque but absorbing much of the world is — if only our hearts would admit what our eyes tell us — elevates him above all other 19th-century landscape photographers in some minds.
- The hills are barren, they are dull of color, they are unpicturesque in shape.