1
as in hideous
unpleasant to look at
her first attempt at painting was pretty ugly—a portrait of her sister that was not at all flattering
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in disgusting
causing intense displeasure, disgust, or resentment
an ugly suggestion for controlling the overpopulation of deer in the area
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of ugly
Nebraska got bogged down in the winter muck after an end to the 2025 season marked by four losses in five games, the final three in ugly fashion.
—
Mitch Sherman, New York Times, 26 Feb. 2026
And that’s likely to get ugly, fast.
—Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board, The Orlando Sentinel, 26 Feb. 2026
From start to finish, ugly hyper-partisanship was on full display.
—Bobby Zirkin, Baltimore Sun, 26 Feb. 2026
Just calling her ugly is an insult with no humor around it.
—Brian Moylan, Vulture, 25 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for ugly
Mitch Sherman, New York Times, 26 Feb. 2026
And that’s likely to get ugly, fast.
—Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board, The Orlando Sentinel, 26 Feb. 2026
From start to finish, ugly hyper-partisanship was on full display.
—Bobby Zirkin, Baltimore Sun, 26 Feb. 2026
Just calling her ugly is an insult with no humor around it.
—Brian Moylan, Vulture, 25 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for ugly
Recent Examples of Synonyms for ugly
Adjective
-
One of most hideous images in American poetry, and yet one of the most memorable.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
27 Feb. 2026
-
Next, law enforcement must rigorously interrogate the men and women who exchanged chummy emails with Epstein and played in his hideous sandbox.—
Amy Wallace,
Mercury News,
25 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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Critics at its first press screening called the film disgusting, accusing it of exploiting both its oblivious subjects and the beloved former first lady.—
Rosemary Counter,
Vanity Fair,
25 Feb. 2026
-
Just last week the president tweeted a vile and disgusting image of President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, and refuses to apologize.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
18 Feb. 2026
Adjective
-
Trump’s taste is the stuff of legend, a sort of grotesque of the conventional, with his gold baroque glop and fake tans and bright-red neckties—everything gesturing toward high-end elegance but always wrong somehow, always slightly too much.—
Sean Williams,
Harpers Magazine,
24 Feb. 2026
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Kuper suggests that, where English hooliganism represents a grotesque form of nostalgia, postwar Japanese civility is a pose predicated on collective amnesia about wartime atrocities.—
Ian Buruma,
New Yorker,
23 Feb. 2026
Adjective
-
Whatever’s awful right now is legit awful.—
Sarah Hepola,
Dallas Morning News,
25 Feb. 2026
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Regardless of how embarrassing, personal, awful, unacceptable things are.—
Joe Rexrode,
New York Times,
24 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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Rosemary makes one of the best companion plants for apple trees because of its strong scent that's unpleasing to critters looking to snack on a juicy red apple.—
Ashlyn Needham,
The Spruce,
16 Feb. 2026
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Smears on non-sensor areas of the tiara are like bug debris on your hood, aesthetically unpleasing but not harmful.—
Eric Tegler,
Popular Mechanics,
1 Oct. 2019
Adjective
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Whatever Americans think about what occurred this weekend, with the attendant death, economic disruption and other horrible human costs of war, to wish for anything other than that is to betray the brave Iranian people and its worried but hopeful diaspora, amply represented in our city.—
The Editorial Board,
Chicago Tribune,
1 Mar. 2026
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Iran has used those missiles, again, in a horrible way, firing them into cities and civilian centers in Israel.—
Isaac Chotiner,
New Yorker,
28 Feb. 2026
Adjective
-
By making this state extremely unattractive to AI data centers.—
Eleanor Dearman,
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
14 Feb. 2026
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They have been used ever since, except for Super Bowl 50, where the number was used instead because NFL ad designers felt Super Bowl L was too unattractive and unmarketable.—
The Athletic NFL Staff,
New York Times,
8 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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At the bottom of the Olympia delle Tofane slope, in the grandstands about 2,000 feet below, there was nothing but a sickening silence after Vonn’s crash.—
Matthew Futterman,
New York Times,
22 Feb. 2026
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The rest of us could only imagine Randall’s sickening embarrassment at needing to testify at the trial.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
18 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Ugly.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/ugly. Accessed 2 Mar. 2026.
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