homely

Other forms of homely

comparative or superlative

homelier

comparative or superlative

homeliest

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about homely

What does homely mean?

homely means "lacking in physical beauty or proportion". That is the primary sense; the word has 4 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in homely?

homely has 2 syllables: home-ly. The stress falls on "home". In IPA it is /ˈhoʊmli/.

What is another word for homely?

Close synonyms include plain, homelike, homey, homy. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is homely a common word?

homely is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.