lacking in physical attractiveness; not beautiful; unattractive: a homely child.
2.
not having elegance, refinement, or cultivation.
3.
proper or suited to the home or to ordinary domestic life; plain; unpretentious: homely food.
4.
commonly seen or known.
Origin: 1300–50; Middle English homly.See home, -ly
Related forms
home·li·ness, noun
o·ver·home·li·ness, noun
o·ver·home·ly, adjective
un·home·li·ness, noun
un·home·ly, adjective
Can be confused:homely, homey, homily (see synonym note at the current entry).
Synonyms 1, 2, 3.Simple,homely (homey), homelike,plain imply absence of adornment or embellishment. Something that is simple is not elaborate or complex: a simple kind of dress. In the United States, homely usually suggests absence of natural beauty: an unattractive person almost homely enough to be called ugly. In England, the word suggests a wholesome simplicity without artificial refinement or elegance; since it characterizes that which is comfortable and attractive, it is equivalent to homey: a homely cottage. Homelike also emphasizes comfort and attractiveness, but it conveys less strongly than does homey a sense of intimate security: a homelike interior, arrangement, atmosphere. Something that is plain has little or no adornment: expensive but plain clothing.
c.1300, "of or belonging to home or household, domestic," from M.E. hom "home." Sense of "plain, unadorned, simple" is late 14c., and extension to "having a plain appearance" took place before 1400, but now survives chiefly in U.S., esp. in New England, where it is the usual term for "physically unattractive;"