Standard Lemma guide
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.
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adj
Of a person: lacking reverence for God; of an action: not in accordance with God's will or religious teachings.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: impious, irreligious, irreverent
Antonyms: godly, observant, pious, reverent
adj
Immoral, sinful, or wicked.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Synonyms: abandoned, arrant, bad, bad apple, bad seed, baleful, scurrilous, baneful, base, black-hearted, dark, deleterious, demonic, depraved, despicable, detrimental, devilish, diabolical, evil, evil-minded, facinorous, flagitious, harmful, heinous, ill-intentioned, ill-natured, immoral, incorrigible, iniquitous, iniquous, injurious, knavish, malefic, maleficent, malevolent, malicious, malign, malignant, naughty, nefarious, niddering, nidering, niding, nithing, no-good, peccaminous, pernicious, reprehensible, reprobate, satanic, scathful, sinful, sinister, sordid, sullen, ungodly, unholy, vicious, vile, villainous, wicked, wrong, aberrant, corrupt, corrupted, dirty-handed, dissolute, effete, errant, indecent, indecorous, immodest, improper, incontinent, licentious, nought, obscene, perverse, perverted, profligate, unduteous, undutiful, unethical, unjust, unprincipled, unrighteous, unseemly, unscrupulous, unworthy
Antonyms: chaste, continent, correct, upstanding, delicate, decent, decorous, desertful, deserving, dutiful, duteous, good, honest, innocent, meritorious, modest, moral, noble, right, right-minded, righteous, straight, uprighteous, virtual, virtuous, well-intentioned, whole-souled, worthy
adj
Extreme; unreasonable.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: informal
Synonyms: dreadful, indecent, outrageous
Antonyms: none provided
adv
In an impious, irreverent, or ungodly manner; ungodlily.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
adjective satellite
characterized by iniquity; wicked because it is believed to be a sin
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Synonyms: iniquitous, sinful
Antonyms: none provided
History
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.
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.
Across languages
40 source translations are retained for this English entry.
