homely.
Characteristic of, belonging to, or befitting a home; domestic, cosy.
Meaning & usage
Characteristic of, belonging to, or befitting a home; domestic, cosy.
Lacking in beauty or elegance, plain in appearance, physically unattractive.
On intimate or friendly terms with (someone); familiar; at home (with a person); intimate.
Domestic; tame.
Personal; private.
Friendly; kind; gracious; cordial.
Conservative and family-oriented.
I am seeking a beautiful homely girl for marriage.
Simple; plain; familiar; unelaborate; unadorned.
a homely garment
homely fare
Where this word comes from
From Middle English homly, hoomly, hamely (“domestic, familiar, plain, unattractive”), from Old English *hāmlīċ (“of the home, domestic”), from Proto-West Germanic *haimalīk (“of or characteristic of home”), equivalent to home + -ly. Cognate with Scots hamely (“familiar, personal, private”), West Frisian heimelik, Dutch heimelijk (“secret, secretive, clandestine”), German heimlich (“secret, secretive, clandestine, undercover”), Danish hemmelig (“secret”), Swedish hemlig (“secret, concealed, privy, covert”), Faroese heimligur (“homelike, homey”), Icelandic heimlegur (“homely; worldly”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.