Standard Lemma guide

comely

adj · adv · verb · 8 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • General-American, Received-Pronunciation: /ˈkʌmli/
  • General-American: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -ʌmli
  • CMU ARPABET: K AH1 M L IY0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Attractive; visually pleasing; good-looking.

Of a person: attractive or pleasing to look at; beautiful, handsome; also, attractive but not particularly beautiful or handsome.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: literary, poetic

Examples

  • a comely woman

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: pulchritudinous, attractive, beauteous, beautifool, beautiful, beautimous, bona vardering, bonnie, breathtaking, captivating, comely, cute, divine, esculent, exquisite, fair, fetching, fine-looking, good-looking, good enough to eat, handsome, heavenly, knockout, lovely, lovesome, lustrious, nice, nice-looking, personable, pretty, prettiful, shapely, sheen, sightly, stunning, swanlike, well-favoured, winsome

Antonyms: homely, uncomely, bad, beat, butters, butt-ugly, clapped, coyote ugly, deform, fuckfaced, fugly, hideous, like the back end of a bus, plug-ugly, repulsive, ugly, ugly as sin, unattractive, unsightly, unpretty

2

adj

Meaning 2

Attractive; visually pleasing; good-looking.

Of a person, an action, behaviour, etc.: meeting accepted moral or social norms; appropriate, becoming, proper.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: literary, poetic

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: agreeable, seemly, allowable, appropriate, apropos, apposite, apt, comely, commensurate, correct, decorous, expedient, felicitous, fit, fit for purpose, fitting, gainand, idoneous, in line, likely, meet, opportune, proper, right, sensible, sortable, suitable, tidy, up to standard

Antonyms: improper, inappropriate, unbecoming, uncomely, unseemly, bad, discommensurate, inapt, incommensurate, inept, inopportune, out of line, out of order, out of place, unapt, unfit, unhappy, unsuitable

3

adj

Meaning 3

Attractive; visually pleasing; good-looking.

Of a thing: beautiful, elegant, well-composed; also, delicate, fine.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: literary, poetic

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: uncomely

4

adj

Meaning 4

Pleasing to the feelings or senses; agreeable, nice, pleasant.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: literary, obsolete, poetic

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: gratifying, acceptable, agreeable, amiable, charming, comely, nice, pleasant, pleasing, welcome

Antonyms: abhorrant, abhorrent, bad, sickly, bum, vile, demonic, disagreeable, disgusting, distasteful, foul, rancid, fulsome, gooey, grim, gro, grody, gross, grotty, harsh, loathsome, munted, nasty, nauseous, offensive, obnoxious, obscene, rank, repugnant, repulsive, revolting, scabrous, sickening, strident, unpleasant

5

adv

Meaning 5

Synonym of comelily (“in a comely manner: in an attractive or pleasing manner; in a manner which meets accepted moral or social norms”).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: archaic, literary, poetic

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: comelily

Antonyms: uncomely

6

verb

Meaning 6

To embellish or grace (something).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: literary, obsolete, poetic, rare, transitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

7

adjective satellite

Meaning 7

very pleasing to the eye

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • my bonny lass
  • there's a bonny bay beyond
  • a comely face
  • young fair maidens

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: bonny, bonnie, fair, sightly

Antonyms: none provided

8

adjective satellite

Meaning 8

according with custom or propriety

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • her becoming modesty
  • comely behavior
  • it is not comme il faut for a gentleman to be constantly asking for money
  • a decent burial
  • seemly behavior

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: becoming, comme il faut, decent, decorous, seemly

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

The adjective is derived from Middle English comly, comli, cumly, cumlich (“of a person: beautiful, handsome, etc.; of noble birth, bearing, or character; of behaviour: appropriate, becoming; of an event: convenient; favourable; of a thing: beautiful, wonderful; fitting, proper”), from Old English cymlīċ, cȳmlīċ (“beautiful, comely; splendid; convenient”), from cȳme (“beautiful, comely; splendid; exquisite, fine”) + -līċ (suffix meaning ‘like; relating to’ forming adjectives). Cȳme is derived from Proto-Germanic *kūmiz (“delicate; feeble”), from *kūmalīkaz (“dear; pitiful”), probably related to *kūmaz, *kūmijaz (“pitiful; frail, weak”), from Proto-Indo-European *gewH- (“to call, name; to call on, invoke; to cry, cry out”). The word was influenced by come (verb). The verb is derived from the adjective. Cognates Middle Dutch komelick, komlick Middle High German gomelīh, komelīh

From Middle English comli, cumly, cumeliche (“beautifully, handsomely; gracefully; splendidly; fittingly, properly; well”), from Old English cȳme (adjective) (see etymology 1) + Middle English -li (suffix forming adverbs).

Across languages

Translations

41 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: миловиден (miloviden) — of a person: attractive or pleasing to look at — see also beautiful, handsome, lovely
  • Czech: hezký — of a person: attractive or pleasing to look at — see also beautiful, handsome, lovely
  • Czech: pohledný — of a person: attractive or pleasing to look at — see also beautiful, handsome, lovely
  • Czech: půvabný — of a person: attractive or pleasing to look at — see also beautiful, handsome, lovely
  • Czech: sličný — of a person: attractive or pleasing to look at — see also beautiful, handsome, lovely
  • Czech: spanilý — of a person: attractive or pleasing to look at — see also beautiful, handsome, lovely
  • Dutch: bevallig — of a person: attractive or pleasing to look at — see also beautiful, handsome, lovely
  • French: avenant — of a person: attractive or pleasing to look at — see also beautiful, handsome, lovely
  • German: ansehnlich — of a person: attractive or pleasing to look at — see also beautiful, handsome, lovely
  • German: hübsch — of a person: attractive or pleasing to look at — see also beautiful, handsome, lovely
  • Ancient Greek: εὔμορφος (eúmorphos) — of a person: attractive or pleasing to look at — see also beautiful, handsome, lovely
  • Hungarian: csinos — of a person: attractive or pleasing to look at — see also beautiful, handsome, lovely
  • Hungarian: kedves — of a person: attractive or pleasing to look at — see also beautiful, handsome, lovely
  • Hungarian: kellemes — of a person: attractive or pleasing to look at — see also beautiful, handsome, lovely
  • Irish: córach — of a person: attractive or pleasing to look at — see also beautiful, handsome, lovely
  • Irish: cuanna — of a person: attractive or pleasing to look at — see also beautiful, handsome, lovely
  • Irish: cumaí — of a person: attractive or pleasing to look at — see also beautiful, handsome, lovely
  • Irish: cumtha — of a person: attractive or pleasing to look at — see also beautiful, handsome, lovely
  • Irish: daite — of a person: attractive or pleasing to look at — see also beautiful, handsome, lovely
  • Irish: dathúil — of a person: attractive or pleasing to look at — see also beautiful, handsome, lovely
  • Irish: dea-chumtha — of a person: attractive or pleasing to look at — see also beautiful, handsome, lovely
  • Irish: dreachúil — of a person: attractive or pleasing to look at — see also beautiful, handsome, lovely
  • Irish: gnaíúil — of a person: attractive or pleasing to look at — see also beautiful, handsome, lovely
  • Irish: lachanta — of a person: attractive or pleasing to look at — see also beautiful, handsome, lovely
  • Irish: leacanta — of a person: attractive or pleasing to look at — see also beautiful, handsome, lovely
  • Irish: maisiúil — of a person: attractive or pleasing to look at — see also beautiful, handsome, lovely
  • Irish: slachtmhar — of a person: attractive or pleasing to look at — see also beautiful, handsome, lovely
  • Irish: sochraidh — of a person: attractive or pleasing to look at — see also beautiful, handsome, lovely
  • Irish: spéisiúil — of a person: attractive or pleasing to look at — see also beautiful, handsome, lovely
  • Latin: venustus — of a person: attractive or pleasing to look at — see also beautiful, handsome, lovely
  • Polish: urodziwy — of a person: attractive or pleasing to look at — see also beautiful, handsome, lovely
  • Portuguese: atraente — of a person: attractive or pleasing to look at — see also beautiful, handsome, lovely
  • Portuguese: lindo — of a person: attractive or pleasing to look at — see also beautiful, handsome, lovely
  • Romanian: drăguț — of a person: attractive or pleasing to look at — see also beautiful, handsome, lovely
  • Romanian: plăcut — of a person: attractive or pleasing to look at — see also beautiful, handsome, lovely
  • Russian: пригожий (prigožij) — of a person: attractive or pleasing to look at — see also beautiful, handsome, lovely
  • Spanish: bien arrostrado — of a person: attractive or pleasing to look at — see also beautiful, handsome, lovely
  • Spanish: bien gestado — of a person: attractive or pleasing to look at — see also beautiful, handsome, lovely
  • Turkish: alımlı — of a person: attractive or pleasing to look at — see also beautiful, handsome, lovely
  • Turkish: göz alıcı — of a person: attractive or pleasing to look at — see also beautiful, handsome, lovely
  • Finnish: hyvännäköinen — of a person: attractive but not particularly beautiful or handsome