sham
Americannoun
adjective
-
pretended; counterfeit; feigned.
sham attacks; a sham Gothic façade.
- Synonyms:
- mock, make-believe, spurious
- Antonyms:
- genuine
-
designed, made, or used as a sham.
verb (used with object)
-
shams,
present (3rd person singular)
-
shammed,
past participle, past
-
shamming
present participle
verb (used without object)
-
shams,
present (3rd person singular)
-
shammed,
past participle, past
-
shamming
present participle
noun
-
anything that is not what it purports or appears to be
-
something false, fake, or fictitious that purports to be genuine
-
a person who pretends to be something other than he is
adjective
verb
Synonym Usage
See false.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
shamsimple
-
shamssimple
-
have shammedperfect
-
has shammedperfect
-
am shammingprogressive
-
are shammingprogressive
-
is shammingprogressive
-
have been shammingperfect progressive
-
has been shammingperfect progressive
Past
-
shammedsimple
-
had shammedperfect
-
was shammingprogressive
-
were shammingprogressive
-
had been shammingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of sham
First recorded in 1670–80; perhaps an alteration of shame ( def. ); origin uncertain
Explanation
A sham is a fake. If you frequently order products advertised on late-night, hour-long television commercials, you’ve probably ended up with at least one item that was a sham. All-purpose, industrial strength stain remover, anyone? Sham can be used to refer to people as well as to things. Remember that doctor from the late-night TV commercial advertising UltraMiracleCure vitamin pills? He’s probably a sham, or a quack. Some sources claim that the word sham originated in the 17th century and was derived from the English word shame, but who knows? Maybe that theory’s a sham too.
Vocabulary lists containing sham
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
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Refugee
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This Week in Words: April 1 - 6, 2018
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Jamie McDonald, US attorney for the Southern District of New York, said the defendants and unidentified co-conspirators orchestrated more than 1,000 sham marriages over the past decade.
From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026
The US Department of Justice did not name the "sham charity" in their press release.
From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2026
“In Madoff, what were called ‘related‑party loans’ were just sham transactions — there was no real economic substance.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026
But Dr. Prasad demanded a randomized controlled trial with a placebo group undergoing sham brain surgery.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026
What if their entire relationship was a sham?
From "Allegiant" by Veronica Roth
In Minnesota, some Medicaid autism treatment centers, transportation providers and housing purveyors were shams.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 29, 2026
Falsified images and propaganda have been misleading people to worse ends for many years, but these recent shams are evidence of a culture-wide abandonment of a common reality.
From Salon ● Jan. 21, 2026
He knows he can turn proceduralist rules into shams, and he knows most of his staff is either too constrained to do anything about it or unaware of what’s really going on.
From Slate ● Dec. 2, 2021
Add a few throw pillows or shams to elevate the whole look — plus, they’ll give you that sink-right-in feeling when you first lay down.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 3, 2021
The history of race relations in Durham was, after all, a long line of such shams extending back for a century.
From "The Best of Enemies" by Osha Gray Davidson
I don’t feel like I got shammed or look like a fool.
From Slate ● Jul. 19, 2018
Hadji said he was ill of fever, and seemed like an idiot; but the orderly said that the illness was shammed and the stupidity assumed in order not to work.
From Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan, Volume I (of 2) Including a Summer in the Upper Karun Region and a Visit to the Nestorian Rayahs by Isabella L. (Isabella Lucy) Bird
He shammed drunk next day, so that you should not suspect him.
From The Rider of Waroona by G. Firth Scott
I think now that she shammed sleep, in order to distract my attention from her.
From A Modern Wizard by Rodrigues Ottolengui
The third day he set off to quarry stones again, and took with him the third meal of food; but he laid down behind it, and shammed sleep.
From Tales from the Fjeld A Second Series of Popular Tales by P. Chr. Asbj?rnsen
I also saw him, of course, at exercise continually, and I saw that he was becoming insane, and was being treated as if he was shamming.
From Slate ● Jun. 16, 2018
When a man grows insane, they treat him as shamming.
From Slate ● Jun. 16, 2018
We hope that, like the seemingly mad Edgar in King Lear, Daryl is just shamming – and that he will, like the Shakespearean dissembler, cast off his mask and take out the evil trash.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 14, 2016
If your point is that Peter is only shamming about his politics, how do you explain this willingness to be imprisoned for them?
From The Guardian ● Oct. 5, 2010
He was not even sure if Cluny was shamming, pretending that his injuries were severe merely as some kind of test or trap that he had set for his captains.
From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
