ugly

 
Pronunciation: /ˈʌgli/

adjective (uglier, ugliest)

  • 1unpleasant or repulsive, especially in appearance: she thought she was ugly and fat the ugly sound of a fire alarm
  • 2involving or likely to involve violence or other unpleasantness: the mood in the room turned ugly
  • unpleasantly suggestive; causing disquiet: ugly rumours persisted that there had been a cover-up
  • morally repugnant: racism and its most ugly manifestations, racial attacks and harassment

Derivatives

uglification

noun

uglify

verb (uglifies, uglifying, uglified)

uglily

adverb

ugliness

noun

Origin:

Middle English: from Old Norse uggligr 'to be dreaded', from ugga 'to dread'

Spelling rule

If a word ends in a consonant plus -y, change the -y to an -i before adding any ending (unless the ending already begins with an -i): (uglier, ugliest).