Thread: What's a better word for ugly in Russian?

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

Thus, even though the word уродливый does not necessarily have this meaning nowadays, it's still a rather strong word suggesting "an extreme degree of ugliness." Is this correct?

They are both quite strong. The difference is, "уродливый" is reserved primarily for people, while "безобразный" is used in a much wider variety of contexts in the meaning of "awful" (still, not as often as other equivalents).
I would use некрасивый unless the appearance is really bad.

Originally Posted by Shady_arc

They are both quite strong. The difference is, "уродливый" is reserved primarily for people, while "безобразный" is used in a much wider variety of contexts in the meaning of "awful" (still, not as often as other equivalents).
I would use некрасивый unless the appearance is really bad.

I can't agree. "Уродливый" is often applied to buildings, gardens, vehicles etc.

"безобразный" is a synonym, but unlike "уродливый" could be also applied to "immaterial" words (with the meaning 'very bad'): безобразная погода, безобразное поведение, etc

уродливый - more like deformed
безобразный - more like wrong, disordered, improper
мерзкий - more like disgusting, hideous