Ugly in Different Languages
Discover 'Ugly' in 134 Languages: Dive into Translations, Hear Pronunciations, and Uncover Cultural Insights.
Ugly
Afrikaans lelik | ||
Albanian i shëmtuar | ||
Amharic አስቀያሚ | ||
Arabic البشع | ||
Armenian տգեղ | ||
Assamese কুত্সিত | ||
Aymara phiru | ||
Azerbaijani çirkin | ||
Bambara cɛjugu | ||
Basque itsusia | ||
Belarusian непрыгожа | ||
Bengali কুৎসিত | ||
Bhojpuri बदरूप | ||
Bosnian ružno | ||
Bulgarian грозен | ||
Catalan lletja | ||
Cebuano ngil-ad | ||
Chinese (Simplified) 丑陋 | ||
Chinese (Traditional) 醜陋 | ||
Corsican bruttu | ||
Croatian ružan | ||
Czech škaredý | ||
Danish grim | ||
Dhivehi ހުތުރު | ||
Dogri बदशक्ल | ||
Dutch lelijk | ||
English ugly | ||
Esperanto malbela | ||
Estonian kole | ||
Ewe vlo | ||
Filipino (Tagalog) pangit | ||
Finnish ruma | ||
French laid | ||
Frisian ûnsjoch | ||
Galician feo | ||
Georgian მახინჯი | ||
German hässlich | ||
Greek άσχημος | ||
Guarani ivai | ||
Gujarati નીચ | ||
Haitian Creole lèd | ||
Hausa mara kyau | ||
Hawaiian ʻinoʻino | ||
Hebrew מְכוֹעָר | ||
Hindi कुरूप | ||
Hmong dab tuag | ||
Hungarian csúnya | ||
Icelandic ljótur | ||
Igbo jọrọ njọ | ||
Ilocano naalas | ||
Indonesian jelek | ||
Irish gránna | ||
Italian brutto | ||
Japanese 醜い | ||
Javanese elek | ||
Kannada ಕೊಳಕು | ||
Kazakh шіркін | ||
Khmer អាក្រក់ | ||
Kinyarwanda mubi | ||
Konkani कुरूप | ||
Korean 추한 | ||
Krio wowo | ||
Kurdish nerind | ||
Kurdish (Sorani) ناشیرین | ||
Kyrgyz чиркин | ||
Lao ບໍ່ດີ | ||
Latin deformem | ||
Latvian neglīts | ||
Lingala mabe | ||
Lithuanian negražu | ||
Luganda -bi | ||
Luxembourgish ellen | ||
Macedonian грд | ||
Maithili कुरूप | ||
Malagasy ratsy tarehy | ||
Malay hodoh | ||
Malayalam വൃത്തികെട്ട | ||
Maltese ikrah | ||
Maori kino | ||
Marathi कुरुप | ||
Meiteilon (Manipuri) ꯃꯁꯛ ꯊꯤꯕ | ||
Mizo hmelchhia | ||
Mongolian муухай | ||
Myanmar (Burmese) ရုပ်ဆိုးသော | ||
Nepali कुरूप | ||
Norwegian stygg | ||
Nyanja (Chichewa) zoyipa | ||
Odia (Oriya) ଅସୁନ୍ଦର | ||
Oromo fokkisaa | ||
Pashto بدرنګه | ||
Persian زشت | ||
Polish brzydki | ||
Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) feio | ||
Punjabi ਬਦਸੂਰਤ | ||
Quechua millay | ||
Romanian urât | ||
Russian уродливый | ||
Samoan auleaga | ||
Sanskrit कुरूपः | ||
Scots Gaelic grànda | ||
Sepedi befile | ||
Serbian ружно | ||
Sesotho hampe | ||
Shona zvakashata | ||
Sindhi بدصورت | ||
Sinhala (Sinhalese) කැතයි | ||
Slovak škaredý | ||
Slovenian grdo | ||
Somali fool xun | ||
Spanish feo | ||
Sundanese awon | ||
Swahili mbaya | ||
Swedish ful | ||
Tagalog (Filipino) pangit | ||
Tajik зишт | ||
Tamil அசிங்கமான | ||
Tatar ямьсез | ||
Telugu అందములేని | ||
Thai น่าเกลียด | ||
Tigrinya መፅልኢ | ||
Tsonga biha | ||
Turkish çirkin | ||
Turkmen nejis | ||
Twi (Akan) tan | ||
Ukrainian потворний | ||
Urdu بدصورت | ||
Uyghur سەت | ||
Uzbek xunuk | ||
Vietnamese xấu xí | ||
Welsh hyll | ||
Xhosa mbi | ||
Yiddish מיעס | ||
Yoruba ilosiwaju | ||
Zulu kubi |
Etymology & Notes
| Language | Etymology / Notes |
|---|---|
| Afrikaans | Lelik is derived from Proto-West Germanic *lailitjaz, meaning 'loathsome, hateful' |
| Albanian | "I shëmtuar" is the Albanian word for "ugly," but it can also mean "disfigured" or "deformed." |
| Amharic | The Amharic word "አስቀያሚ" can also mean "repulsive" or "disgusting" |
| Arabic | The word 'البشع' ('ugly') in Arabic is derived from the root 'ب-ش-ع', which also means 'to be deformed' or 'to be repulsive'. |
| Armenian | "Տգեղ" is also used to describe things that are not physically attractive, but rather morally or intellectually flawed. |
| Azerbaijani | The etymology of "çirkin" is thought to be from the Proto-Turkic word "çir" meaning "ugly" or "bad". |
| Basque | "Itsusia" is sometimes used to refer to something small or insignificant, or to something that is not quite right. |
| Belarusian | The word "непрыгожа" is derived from the Old Belarusian "непригож", which means "not pleasant to look at". |
| Bengali | The word 'কুৎসিত' in Bengali is derived from the Sanskrit word 'कुत्सित' meaning 'blameworthy' or 'faulty'. |
| Bosnian | In Serbian, ružno can also mean "disorderly" or "messy". |
| Bulgarian | The word "грозен" comes from the Indo-European root "ghre" and is cognate with the English "grim" and the German "greulich." |
| Catalan | In Catalan, "lletja" can also refer to a poorly made object, task, or piece of music. |
| Cebuano | The Cebuano word "ngil-ad" is also used to describe something that is unpleasant or disagreeable. |
| Chinese (Simplified) | 丑陋 originally meant 'unclean' and was later extended to mean 'vulgar' and then 'ugly'. |
| Chinese (Traditional) | It’s also the Chinese name for the Chinese alligator, a critically endangered reptile native to the Yangtze Basin and a cultural symbol of China's Jiangsu Province, where the alligator is popularly known as the "Jiangsu Ugly Duckling." |
| Corsican | The word "bruttu" in Corsican comes from the Latin word "brūtus," which can mean either "brute" or "heavy." |
| Croatian | The Croatian word "ružan" also means "pink" in some Slavic languages, likely stemming from the Proto-Slavic word for "flower". |
| Czech | The word "škaredý" originally meant "miserly" or "stingy" in Old Czech. |
| Danish | The Danish adjective "grim" has its roots in the Old Norse word "grima," meaning "mask" or "helmet," and can also refer to "terror" or "anger". |
| Dutch | The word "lelijk" is derived from the Old Dutch word "lilic", which means "corpse-like". |
| Esperanto | Malbela is formed after the words "mala" (bad) and "bela" (beautiful), and it has the meaning of "badly beautiful", or "grotesque". |
| Estonian | The word "kole" is thought to be derived from the Proto-Uralic word *kola, meaning "fish; fish bone". It is also found in other Uralic languages, such as Finnish and Hungarian, where it means "fish bone" and "scab" respectively. |
| French | "Laid" derives from the Medieval Latin word "laidus", meaning "loathsome", which in turn derives from the Greek word "leprodes", meaning "leprous". |
| Frisian | The Frisian word "ûnsjoch" is thought to be derived from the Old Frisian words "un," meaning "not," and "schoech," meaning "fair". |
| Galician | The word "feo" in Galician can also mean "bad", "evil", or "nasty". |
| Georgian | The word 'maxinji' ('ugly') is derived from the Old Georgian word 'maxe' ('evil, bad'), and originally referred to moral ugliness, but has since come to refer to physical ugliness as well. |
| German | 'Hässlich' is derived from 'hass' (hatred) and originally meant 'hated' or 'disagreeable' rather than unattractive. |
| Greek | The word "άσχημος" is derived from the Greek word "σχήμα" meaning "form" and originally meant "lacking in form" or "deformed". |
| Gujarati | The word "નીચ" in Gujarati is cognate with the word "नीच" in Hindi, which is derived from the Sanskrit word "नीच" meaning "low" or "inferior". |
| Haitian Creole | "Lèd" derives from the French word "laid", which means "ugly" or "disgusting". |
| Hausa | In Hausa, the term "mara kyau" carries an additional connotation of "poorly crafted" or "lacking in beauty and elegance" |
| Hawaiian | ʻinoʻino is also used to refer to a person suffering from an illness. |
| Hebrew | It shares a root with the verb כָּעַר, which means 'to be angry', implying that something that is ugly provokes a negative emotional reaction. |
| Hindi | The word "कुरूप" is derived from the Sanskrit word "कुरु" meaning "bad" and "रूप" meaning "form". |
| Hmong | "Dab tuag" is a strong word that refers to a combination of both extreme ugliness and worthlessness. |
| Hungarian | The Hungarian word "csúnya" also means "dirty" but originally meant "strange" or "foreign". |
| Icelandic | "Ljót" in some Germanic languages also means "dear", and "ljótur" in Icelandic can be used in that sense as well. |
| Indonesian | In Old Javanese, the word "jelek" originally meant "rotten" or "spoiled". |
| Irish | In Irish mythology, 'gránna' primarily refers to a mythological creature associated with ugliness or fear, rather than its modern meaning of 'ugly'. |
| Italian | The Italian word "brutto" has cognates in other Romance languages, such as the French "brut" and the Spanish "bruto", all deriving from the Latin "brutus", meaning "heavy" or "dull." |
| Japanese | "醜い" is made up of "シ" (death) and "醜" (bad), and can also mean "inauspicious". |
| Javanese | "Elek" is the opposite of "ay", can be used for people, things, and actions, and is sometimes even used to describe the taste of food. |
| Kannada | ಕೊಳಕು also means "dirty" and comes from the Prakrit word "kudda". |
| Kazakh | The word "шіркін" (ugly) in Kazakh is possibly derived from the word "шер" (wild, untamed) or "шіру" (rough, coarse). |
| Khmer | In Khmer, the word "អាក្រក់" can also refer to something that is "bad" or "evil." |
| Korean | 추한 (ch'uhan) also means "unfortunate," which is the root of the term 추하 (ch'uha) or "misfortune." |
| Kurdish | The word "nerind" in Kurdish can also refer to something that is unsightly or unpleasant to look at. |
| Kyrgyz | The word "чиркин" derives from the Old Turkic "çir" meaning "decayed" or "rotten". |
| Lao | The word "ບໍ່ດີ" in Lao has a double meaning, referring both to physical appearance and moral character. |
| Latin | The Latin word "deformem" can also mean "unsightly, misshapen, hideous, deformed, monstrous, or disfigured." |
| Latvian | Latvian word "neglīts" comes from the Proto-Indo-European root "ghel" or "ghelh-" which meant yellow or bright, so originally "neglīts" meant something bright, standing out. |
| Lithuanian | The word "negražu" is derived from the Proto-Indo-European root "*neg-", meaning "to deny" or "to refuse". |
| Luxembourgish | The Luxembourgish word "ellen" also means "evil", "bad" or "unpleasant". |
| Macedonian | The word "грд" is derived from the Proto-Slavic adjective *gъrdъ, which meant "proud", "arrogant" or "haughty". |
| Malagasy | The Malagasy word ratsy tarehy has a literal meaning of 'ugly-faced', reflecting the importance of physical appearance in the Malagasy culture. |
| Malay | The origin of the Malay word "hodoh" is unclear and it is also used in the Malay language as a verb, meaning "to become ugly". |
| Maltese | The word "ikrah" is derived from the Arabic word "karaha" which means "to dislike" or "to hate". It can also be used to describe something that is unpleasant or distasteful. |
| Maori | Maori word 'kino' can also refer to something that is bad or evil. |
| Marathi | The word "कुरुप" in Marathi is derived from the Sanskrit word "कुरूप" (kurūpa), which means "bad-looking" or "deformed". |
| Mongolian | In addition to meaning "ugly," "муухай" can also mean "evil," "bad," "unlucky," "unpleasant," or "inferior." |
| Nepali | The word "कुरूप" in Nepali is derived from the Sanskrit word "कुरूप" meaning "deformed" or "disfigured". |
| Norwegian | The Norwegian word “stygg” comes from Old Norse “styggr” meaning “disgusting” rather than its current meaning of “ugly”. |
| Nyanja (Chichewa) | The word 'zoyipa' can also mean 'bad' or 'evil' in Nyanja. |
| Pashto | The Pashto word "بدرنګه" (badranga) is derived from the Persian word "بد رنگ" (badrang), meaning "bad color" or "ugly." |
| Persian | The word "زشت" (zesht) in Persian originally meant "contrary", "opposite", or "unfortunate", not necessarily "ugly". |
| Polish | Brzydki ('ugly') is an adjective derived from the verb 'brzydzić' ('to disgust'), which itself comes from the Proto-Slavic '*brьždьti' ('to be unpleasant'). |
| Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) | The word "feio" in Portuguese can also mean "bad" or "evil". |
| Romanian | The Romanian word "urât" has cognates with the English word "horrid" and the Latin word "horridus", all deriving from the same Proto-Indo-European root meaning "rough" or "bristly". |
| Russian | The Russian word "уродливый" can also mean "monstrous" or "abnormal" in the sense of deviating from the norm or expected. |
| Samoan | In Samoan, the word "auleaga" derives from "aul" meaning "to be in a disagreeable state". Alternatively, "leaga" denotes "bad, unpleasant, or inferior" in Samoan's Polynesian root. |
| Scots Gaelic | Grànda can also refer to a 'rough or coarse' surface or texture, or to a 'large' or 'immense' thing. |
| Serbian | "Ружно" means "bad" in Serbian, but it also has the alternate meaning of "unfortunate" or "bad luck". |
| Sesotho | The Sesotho word "hampe" also means "dark" or "cloudy". |
| Shona | Possibly derives from 'zvaka' which means to 'rub' or to 'scrape', alluding to scratching or scraping off something unwanted. |
| Sindhi | The word "بدصورت" in Sindhi comes from the Persian root "bad" meaning "evil" and "surat" meaning "face". |
| Sinhala (Sinhalese) | කැතයි (kaththay) can also be used to describe something worthless, undesirable or shameful. |
| Slovak | "Škaredý" is most likely derived from Old Church Slavonic "škьrd" via Czech, while another Slavic root "škurd" may be related to "škubat" (to pluck). It is unrelated to "škorúpok" (shell, crust). |
| Slovenian | The word "grdo" in Slovenian also means "bad" or "not good". |
| Somali | The Somali word "fool xun" translates to "ugly" but originally meant "one with a wide nose". |
| Spanish | The word "feo" in Spanish comes from the Latin word "fetus", meaning "offspring" or "young one", and originally referred to the appearance of a newborn baby. |
| Sundanese | The word "awon" in Sundanese can also mean "bad" or "evil". |
| Swahili | The word "mbaya" in Swahili can also mean "bad" or "evil" in a moral sense. |
| Swedish | In Swedish, "ful" can also mean "drunk" or "rotten". |
| Tagalog (Filipino) | The Tagalog word "pangit" ultimately derives from the Malay "pangat"," meaning "to be inferior, base or despicable." |
| Tajik | The word "зишт" derives from the same Proto-Indo-European root as "disgusting" and "stench". |
| Tamil | The Tamil word "அசிங்கமான" is derived from the Sanskrit word "अशिवमंगलम्". The term refers to something that is inauspicious or unlucky. |
| Telugu | The Telugu word 'అందములేని' (ugly) derives from the Sanskrit word 'अन्दर' (within) and 'मुल्' (to cover or bind), suggesting something concealed or hidden from view. |
| Thai | The word "น่าเกลียด" in Thai can also mean "disgusting" or "contemptible". |
| Turkish | In Turkish, the word "çirkin" can also refer to a person who is rude or unpleasant. |
| Ukrainian | The word "потворний" in Ukrainian also means "malicious" or "malevolent". |
| Urdu | The word "بدصورت" is derived from the Persian word "بد ساخت" meaning "badly made". |
| Uzbek | The word "xunuk" can also be used in a humorous context to describe something that is intentionally or playfully ugly. |
| Vietnamese | The word "xấu xí" in Vietnamese originated from the Chinese phrase " xấu xí ", which means "evil and ugly". |
| Welsh | Hyll can refer to a specific part of the anatomy in Welsh and also means “disfigured” |
| Xhosa | In Xhosa, the word 'mbi' is also used figuratively to describe something that is unpleasant or worthless. |
| Yiddish | The word 'מיעס' can also mean tired or exhausted in Yiddish. |
| Yoruba | The Yoruba word "ilosiwaju" can also mean "disgrace" or "shame". |
| Zulu | The word "kubi" can also mean "difficult" or "troublesome" in Zulu. |
| English | The word "ugly" derives from the Old Norse "uggla," meaning "fear" or "terror." |