醜い

Japanese
Kanji in this term
醜
みにく
Grade: S
kun’yomi

Etymology

Compound of 見 (mi, “seeing, looking”, the 連用形 (ren'yōkei, “continuative or stem form”) of verb 見る (miru, “to see, to look at”)) +‎ 難い (nikui, “hard to do, difficult”), with a literal meaning of “hard to look at” or “difficult to see”.[1][2]

Pronunciation

Alternative forms

Adjective

醜い (-i inflection, hiragana みにくい, rōmaji minikui)

  1. ugly
  2. ignoble, mean, shabby, vile, vulgar
  3. difficult to distinguish, hard to make out

Usage notes

The 見難い spelling is more common for the “difficult to distinguish” sense.

Inflection
Inflection of 醜い
Stem forms
Imperfective (未然形) 醜かろ みにくかろ minikukaro
Continuative (連用形) 醜く みにくく minikuku
Terminal (終止形) 醜い みにくい minikui
Attributive (連体形) 醜い みにくい minikui
Hypothetical (仮定形) 醜けれ みにくけれ minikukere
Imperative (命令形) 醜かれ みにくかれ minikukare
Key constructions
Informal negative 醜くない みにくくない minikuku nai
Informal past 醜かった みにくかった minikukatta
Informal negative past 醜くなかった みにくくなかった minikuku nakatta
Formal 醜いです みにくいです minikui desu
Formal negative 醜くないです みにくくないです minikuku nai desu
Formal past 醜かったです みにくかったです minikukatta desu
Formal negative past 醜くなかったです みにくくなかったです minikuku nakatta desu
Conjunctive 醜くて みにくくて minikukute
Conditional 醜ければ みにくければ minikukereba
Provisional 醜かったら みにくかったら minikukattara
Volitional 醜かろう みにくかろう minikukarō
Adverbial 醜く みにくく minikuku
Degree 醜さ みにくさ minikusa

Synonyms

Antonyms

References
  1. 1988, 国語大辞典（新装版） (Kokugo Dai Jiten, Revised Edition) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan
  2. 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
  3. 1998, NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 (NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: NHK, →ISBN
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