醜

The glyph operates on a spectrum between physical appearance and moral standing:

• Physical: Ugly, homely, deformed, or visually offensive.
• Moral: Disgraceful, shameful, or scandalous. In this sense, it denotes a lack of propriety that renders the subject an object of public ridicule; it implies a manifest failure of character rather than general "badness."

• Attributive/Adjective: Modifies a person, feature, or action.
• Noun: Denotes "a disgrace" or "an ugly thing."
• Predicate: Functions as a stative verb (e.g., "to be disgraceful/ugly").

• vs. 陋 (lòu): While 醜 is offensive or scandalous, 陋 suggests crudeness, narrowness, or humble origins (often related to class or lack of refinement).
• vs. 恥 (chǐ): 恥 generally refers to the feeling of shame or the social category of shame; 醜 describes the quality of the act or person that evokes that shame.
• vs. 惡 (è): 惡 denotes malice, evil, or a fundamental badness of essence; 醜 focuses on the surface manifestation—the scandal or appearance.

• Variants: In early texts, 醜 and 丑 are frequently interchangeable. When 丑 appears in a non-calendrical context (i.e., not as the second Earthly Branch), it may be a variant of 醜.
• Simplified variant: U+4E11.

Avoid modernizing the term to mean merely "physically ugly." In ancient contexts—particularly regarding officials, ritual, or public conduct—the sense of "disgraceful" is often primary.