Standard Lemma guide

unhandsome

adj · 1 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

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  • /ˌʌnˈhæn.səm/
  • rhymes with -ænsəm

1

adj

Meaning 1

Not handsome.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

  • c. 1790, Robert Burns, Letter to Mr. Charles K. Sharpe of Hoddam, in J. Logie Robertson (ed.), Burns’s Letters, The coat on my back is no more: I shall not speak evil of the dead. It would be equally unhandsome and ungrateful to find fault with my old surtout, which so kindly supplies and conceals the want of that coat.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *né Proto-Indo-European *n̥- Proto-Germanic *un- Proto-West Germanic *un- Old English un- Middle English un- English un- English handsome English unhandsome From un- + handsome.