ungodly
Syllables: un·god·ly/ʌnˈɡɒdli//ʌnˈɡɑdli/
ungodly adjective: of a person: lacking reverence for God; of an action: not in accordance with God's will or religious teachings.
Adjective
ungodly (comparative more ungodly or ungodlier, superlative most ungodly or ungodliest)
- Of a person: lacking reverence for God; of an action: not in accordance with God's will or religious teachings.
- They ſay You are a ſpot among Chriſtians; and that Religion fareth the worſe for your ungodly converſation, that ſome have already ſtumbled at your wicked ways, and that more are in danger of being deſtroyed thereby; your Religion, and an Ale-Houſe, and Covetouſneſs, and uncleanneſs, and ſwearing...1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: […] Nath[aniel] Ponder […], →OCLC; reprinted in The Pilgrim’s Progress as Originally Published by...
- [...] Calvinism gave a much more radical development to its Law of Nature. It successfully established the principle of the right of resistance, which must be exercised on behalf of the word of God in the face of ungodly authorities, [...]1912, Ernst Troeltsch, “Protestantism and Politico-social Institutions”, in W. Montgomery, transl., Protestantism and Progress: A Historical Study of the Relation of Protestantism to the Modern World...
- Synonyms:
- impious, irreligious, irreverent
- Immoral, sinful, or wicked.
- People often turn to ungodly ideas as an emotional response to trauma.
- [N]ow ſuch as liue vngodly, vvithout a care of doing the wil of the Lord (though they profeſſe him in their mouths, yea though they beleeue and acknowledge all the Articles of the Creed, yea haue knowledge of the Scripturs) yet if they liue vngodly, they deny God, and therefore ſhal be denied, [...]1604, Jeremy Corderoy, A Short Dialogve, vvherein is Proved, that No Man can be Saved vvithout Good VVorkes, 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Simon Waterson, →OCLC, page 40
- Synonyms:
- abandoned, arrant, bad, bad apple, bad seed, baleful, scurrilous, baneful, base, black-hearted
- Extreme; unreasonable.
- We had to start our journey at an ungodly hour.
- It is a vast picnic in honour of the Virgin. [...] A heaving ebb and flow of humanity fills the eye; fires are flickering before extempore shelters, and an ungodly amount of food is being consumed, as traditionally prescribed for such occasions—"si mangia per divozione."1915, Norman Douglas, “A Mountain Festival”, in Old Calabria, London: Martin Secker […], →OCLC, pages 151–152
- Synonyms:
- dreadful, indecent, outrageous
Adverb
ungodly (comparative more ungodly, superlative most ungodly)
- In an impious, irreverent, or ungodly manner; ungodlily.
- Beholde⸝ the lorde ſhall come with thouſandꝭ of ſayntꝭ⸝ to geve iudgement agaynſt all men⸝ and to rebuke all that are vngodly amonge them⸝ of all their vngodly dedes⸝ which they have vngodly cõmitted⸝ [...]1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, The Pistle off Sanct Judas j:[14–15], folio cccxx, verso
- It is ungodly made, fashioned by man, a beast spun from fire and steel.2019, Maaza Mengiste, The Shadow King, Canongate Books (2020), page 123
ungodly meaning in Urdu, Malayalam and Arabic
ungodly in Urdu
- بےدھرم, بےدین, گناہگار, پاپی
ungodly in Malayalam
- godless, unholy, irreligious
- അദെെവ, ഈശ്വരഭക്തിയില്ലാത്ത, ദെെവഭയമില്ലാത്ത, പാപിഷ്ഠമായ, അപവിത്ര, പവിത്രമല്ലാത്ത
- unreasonable, unsocial, antisocial
- അദെെവ, ദെെവത്തിനു നിരക്കാത്ത, അയുക്തികമായ, ന്യായമല്ലാത്ത, സാമൂഹികമല്ലാത്ത, സമൂഹവിരുദ്ധമായ
ungodly in Arabic
- (informal) extreme; unreasonable
- غَيْر مَعْقُول ḡayr maʕqūl
Examples of ungodly in a sentence
- This righteousness spoken about is a judicial or forensic declarative pronouncement given by God to the ungodly sinner who receives it by faith alone.2013, Manny Alaniz, “The Traditional View of Imputed Righteousness”, in Deficiencies in the Justification of the Ungodly: A Look at N. T....
- It is I, ungodly Zarathustra, who say, 'Who is ungodlier than I, that I may enjoy his teaching?' [...] Behold, I myself am probably at present of us two the ungodlier one?1896, Friedrich Nietzsche, “Off Duty”, in Alexander Tille, transl., Thus Spake Zarathustra […] (The Works of Friedrich Nietzsche; VIII)...
- Did some ungodly specter ride with him that neither he nor his horse had been hit?1973, Matt Braun, chapter 4, in El Paso, St. Martin’s Paperbacks edition, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, published July 1999, →ISBN...
- In the past, she could remember exactly the same sourness of that ungodly emotion [jealousy] when she had noticed how Violet, Dick's sister, had loved Mark, [...]1981, K. M. Peyton [pseudonym; Kathleen Wendy Herald Peyton], chapter 5, in Flambards Divided, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University...
Synonyms of ungodly
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
10 more antonymsFewer antonyms
Forms of ungodly
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more ungodly |
| comparative | ungodlier |
| superlative | most ungodly |
| superlative | ungodliest |
| Adverb | |
| comparative | more ungodly |
| superlative | most ungodly |
Origin of ungodly
From Middle English ungodli [and other forms], from un- (prefix meaning ‘not’), + godli (“belonging to God; resembling God, godlike”). Godli is derived from Old English godlīċ (“divine, godlike; godly”), from god (“god”) + -līċ (“suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘characteristic of, pertaining to’”). The English word may be analysed as un- + godly, and is cognate with Middle Dutch ongodelijc (modern Dutch ongoddelijk), Middle High German ungötlich (modern German ungöttlich), Old Norse óguðligr (“ungodly”) (Danish ugudelig, Icelandic óguðlegur), Swedish ogudlig.
From Middle English ungodli (“cruelly, maliciously, wickedly; unfairly, unlawfully, wrongly; discourteously, rudely”) [and other forms], from un- (prefix meaning ‘not’), + godli (“excellently; pleasingly, splendidly; courteously, graciously; gladly, willingly; righteously; properly, rightly; at all, possibly; much”). Godli is probably derived from Old English gōdlīċe (“goodly”), from gōd (“good”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʰedʰ- (“to join, unite; to suit”)) + -līċe (suffix forming adverbs); thus, equivalent to un- + good + -ly. The English word is cognate with Middle Dutch ongodelike, ongodlike (modern Dutch ongoddelijk), Middle High German ungöttlich, Swedish ogudelike, ogudlike (both obsolete), ogudligt.
Words formed from ungodly
Phrases with ungodly
Questions about ungodly
- What does ungodly mean?
- Ungodly means of a person: lacking reverence for God; of an action: not in accordance with God's will or religious teachings.
- What is ungodly in Urdu?
- Ungodly in Urdu is بےدھرم, بےدین, گناہگار. See Ungodly meaning in Urdu.
- How do you use ungodly in a sentence?
- This righteousness spoken about is a judicial or forensic declarative pronouncement given by God to the ungodly sinner who receives it by faith alone.
- What part of speech is ungodly?
- Ungodly can be an adjective or an adverb.
- How do you pronounce ungodly?
- Ungodly is pronounced /ʌnˈɡɒdli/ (UK).
Words near ungodly in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ungodly (page history and authors); ungodly (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ungodly (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-ungodly.wav, En-us-ungodly.mp3.
Cite this entry: “ungodly.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ungodly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.