“Art produces ugly things which frequently become more beautiful with time. Fashion, on the other hand, produces beautiful things which always become ugly with time.” – Jean Cocteau

A Euphemism is a word or phrase which is used in order to make something sound a little better than it really is. We use euphemisms a lot in order to sound polite, soften the blow of very surprising news or sometimes just for the fun of it.

Probably one of the worst things you can say to many people is that they are ugly, but sometimes people are ugly, either on the outside or the inside. So how can we call someone ugly without hurting their feelings so much? In fact you probably can’t, no matter how nicely you put it they are going to hate you for saying it but here are some English Euphemisms people do use to call people ugly.

Plain – Plain wasn’t always bad, it originally meant someone who just looked normal. But people started to use it to try and talk about their friends who weren’t very beautiful, as more and more people used it, everyone started to understand it to mean ugly instead of normal. Nowadays “Plain” is often used for girls that people think are not pretty and has become a euphemism for ugly. Sometimes you might here someone use it along with the name “Jane” as in “She’s a plain Jane.”, in English we like rhyming, it doesn’t actually mean her name is Jane.

Mostly used for females.

“What do you think of Sally?”
“I don’t know, she looks a little, plain.”
“She’s a plain girl.”

Interesting – Interesting is hard one to use correctly because it must be used in the proper tone and at the right time. Often people put a pause before hand like they are trying to think of something nice to say and “interesting” was the best thing they could think of. It’s used a lot by parents as you don’t want to call your child’s new hair style ugly, instead you can just say “Interesting…”

Used for both males and females.

“Wow, your hair looks very…. interesting!”
“That’s a very interesting painting you have.”

His face has character – Saying a face has character means it looks like it has had a very interesting life so it probably has many scars or looks like life has been hard, or it might just look like an interesting face in some way. Some people like a face with character, it makes the person look more interesting (in a good way), but generally they aren’t considered the most beautiful people anyway.

Mostly used for males

Examples:

“He’s a nice guy and has a face with a lot of character.”
“He’s not handsome but his face has character!”

Unconventional – This is used in Hollywood when they want to find someone to play a character who is very ugly or looks strange. If you look unconventional, you don’t look like everyone else and that’s generally not considered a good thing terribly.

Used for both males and females.

Examples

“We need someone who has an unconventional look for this part.”
“You certainly have an unconventional look!”

Homely - Often my students use their dictionary for this word and many dictionaries will translate it to mean “home-style” as in “Home-style food” or food that is like you would eat at home. While this is technically true, homely now is much more commonly used to describe people or things and it means ugly. This change came about because if someone looks like the type of person who stays home a lot, why aren’t they outside meeting and dating people? Because they are ugly. Of course maybe they are just shy or enjoy staying home, but don’t blame me for the way these words work! Homely is most often used for describing someone, not so much for calling someone.

Used for both males and females.

“When the door opened a homely woman stood watching me.”
“A homely man got out of the car.”

A great personality – To say someone looks like they have a great personality means they probably look very ugly so don’t ask about their looks, just focus on how wonderful a person they are. This is often used in situations where you have to describe someone but don’t to scare away the person you are talking to, like if I ask out a girl and she agrees but she insists she wants to bring her friend with her. My job is to find a friend to date her friend, but her friend is ugly. So I ask my friend “Hey, want to go on a double date with me?” and he asks “Maybe, what does the girl look like?” I could reply “She looks like she has a great personality!” meaning don’t worry about her looks, she’s a very nice girl!

Extras:
Unattractive – That is a very unattractive person.
Fell out of the ugly tree (and hit every branch on the way down) - He looks like he fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the waydown!
A face that could sink a thousand ships – It’s a play on how a very beautiful women is sometimes said to have a face that could launch a thousand ships which came from the Greeks who launched a thousand ships to rescue Helen. “She has a face that sink a thousand ships!”
They are a Monet – This means beautiful from a distance but up close looks strange. Based on the famous painter “Monet” whose paintings often look clearer from a distance. “He’s a bit of a Monet.”


These are just a few of the many Euphemisms we can use for ugly, if you know of anymore please let me know in the comments below or in the forum!