as in ugly
unpleasant to look at
along with thousands of other people, we entered our beloved pooch in a contest to find the homeliest dog in the country
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Recent Examples of homely
Ford’s shrewd boss, Robert McNamara, was ready to kill the nameplate altogether, facing another homely redesign approved for 1961.
—
Raphael Orlove, Robb Report, 27 Feb. 2025
There is no fruit more poetic than the homely apple: Horticulturally, an apple is a kind of pome.
—A.o. Scott, New York Times, 23 Jan. 2025
Here too, a bench with drawers (like the one seen here from Reform) provides a practical and homely solution.
7.
—Katharina Schwarze, Architectural Digest, 7 Jan. 2025
Eighteen months ago, the Jewish Museum London, which occupied an idiosyncratic, homely town house in Camden, where my wife and I used to take our kids on rainy weekends, closed its doors for lack of funding.
—Sam Knight, The New Yorker, 2 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for homely
Raphael Orlove, Robb Report, 27 Feb. 2025
There is no fruit more poetic than the homely apple: Horticulturally, an apple is a kind of pome.
—A.o. Scott, New York Times, 23 Jan. 2025
Here too, a bench with drawers (like the one seen here from Reform) provides a practical and homely solution.
7.
—Katharina Schwarze, Architectural Digest, 7 Jan. 2025
Eighteen months ago, the Jewish Museum London, which occupied an idiosyncratic, homely town house in Camden, where my wife and I used to take our kids on rainy weekends, closed its doors for lack of funding.
—Sam Knight, The New Yorker, 2 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for homely
Recent Examples of Synonyms for homely
Adjective
-
Tech wealth here looks even less appealing than that of the Roy family (the expensively beige décor is even uglier).—
Kyle Chayka,
New Yorker,
4 June 2025
-
During the negotiation of USMCA in 2018, the current trade agreement between the United States, Mexico and Canada that Trump managed during his first term, conversations between the President and GM occasionally turned ugly.—
Jackie Charniga,
USA Today,
3 June 2025
Adjective
-
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
-
His side's inability to finish off the game against Burnley on the other hand was very unpleasing.—
SI.com,
SI.com,
1 Feb. 2018
Adjective
-
There are no save-the-cat redemptions for a man who became famous for torturing, murdering and performing hideous experiments on countless Jews as part of a team of doctors overseeing medical services at Auschwitz-Birkenau.—
Jordan Mintzer,
HollywoodReporter,
20 May 2025
-
But Eleanor has backed herself into an awful corner, and in some ways, so too has Johansson’s film, which is stuck trying to impart sage wisdom through the lens of a truly hideous (if well-meaning) lie.—
Kate Erbland,
IndieWire,
20 May 2025
Adjective
-
If, like for me, Lewis Carroll’s 1865 fairy tale about a girl who stumbles into Wonderland is a core memory, all those beloved characters are there, with a splendidly cogent (and at times delightfully grotesque) libretto.—
Lauren Warnecke,
Chicago Tribune,
6 June 2025
-
The gore may have felt too grotesque to shoot in live action using makeup and prosthetics, and potentially unbearable for some audiences to watch.—
Carlos Aguilar,
Variety,
6 June 2025
Adjective
-
But what has emerged is a repetitive, unattractive, and finally unrewarding slog, in which Ducournau’s filmmaking verve itself seems to harden into lifelessness.—
Justin Chang,
New Yorker,
26 May 2025
-
Although domestic demand for these goods remains strong, bringing this sector back to the United States is both politically empty and economically unattractive.—
Zongyuan Zoe Liu,
Foreign Affairs,
29 Apr. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Homely.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/homely. Accessed 10 Jun. 2025.
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