ungodly.
Of a person: lacking reverence for God; of an action: not in accordance with God's will or religious teachings.
Meaning & usage
Of a person: lacking reverence for God; of an action: not in accordance with God's will or religious teachings.
Immoral, sinful, or wicked.
People often turn to ungodly ideas as an emotional response to trauma.
Extreme; unreasonable.
We had to start our journey at an ungodly hour.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English ungodli [and other forms], from un- (prefix meaning ‘not’), + godli (“belonging to God; resembling God, godlike”). Godli is derived from Old English godlīċ (“divine, godlike; godly”), from god (“god”) + -līċ (“suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘characteristic of, pertaining to’”). The English word may be analysed as un- + godly, and is cognate with Middle Dutch ongodelijc (modern Dutch ongoddelijk), Middle High German ungötlich (modern German ungöttlich), Old Norse óguðligr (“ungodly”) (Danish ugudelig, Icelandic óguðlegur), Swedish ogudlig.
In an impious, irreverent, or ungodly manner; ungodlily.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English ungodli (“cruelly, maliciously, wickedly; unfairly, unlawfully, wrongly; discourteously, rudely”) [and other forms], from un- (prefix meaning ‘not’), + godli (“excellently; pleasingly, splendidly; courteously, graciously; gladly, willingly; righteously; properly, rightly; at all, possibly; much”). Godli is probably derived from Old English gōdlīċe (“goodly”), from gōd (“good”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʰedʰ- (“to join, unite; to suit”)) + -līċe (suffix forming adverbs); thus, equivalent to un- + good + -ly. The English word is cognate with Middle Dutch ongodelike, ongodlike (modern Dutch ongoddelijk), Middle High German ungöttlich, Swedish ogudelike, ogudlike (both obsolete), ogudligt.
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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.