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:
"City's difficulty is that the Commission heard extensive witness and documentary evidence but nevertheless made serious findings of sham arrangements and disguised owner funding."
From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2026
Fielder is the creator of the TV series “The Rehearsal” and “Nathan for You” who constructs discombobulating sham realities that include bogus businesses such as Dumb Starbucks.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 14, 2026
An independent commission found City had broken rules over a nine-year period between 2009 and 2018 by creating "sham" contracts with commercial partners to secretly funnel more than £830m into their football operations.
From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2026
The other received a sham treatment, meaning they went through the same training process but were instructed to maintain their natural foot angle.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 11, 2026
Gatsby is alone when the book begins, and he dies alone, with his life exposed as a sham and almost no one to come to his funeral.
From "Drama High" by Michael Sokolove
She has denied any allegations of wrongdoing and has called the investigations into her "complete shams".
From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2026
In Minnesota, some Medicaid autism treatment centers, transportation providers and housing purveyors were shams.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 29, 2026
When they couldn't get answers, that's when they dug into it more, they determined they were shams and they began to short them.
From Salon ● Mar. 31, 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
“I don’t believe one whit in such shams, nor should you, Nell Warne.”
From "The Detective's Assistant" by Kate Hannigan
I don’t feel like I got shammed or look like a fool.
From Slate ● Jul. 19, 2018
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
He would have shammed illness if there had been the slightest chance of being believed.
From The Girls of St. Cyprian's A Tale of School Life by Angela Brazil
To escape service in the front-line trenches the soldiers shammed gas-poisoning and resorted to other devices to avoid duty.
The doctor who was called prescribed for acute rheumatism, and the way in which the patient shammed pain was pathetic.
From The White Lie by William Le Queux
In a sense, then, because the shamming always happened openly, the revelation that it was shamatory feels underwhelming.
From Slate ● Jul. 22, 2021
We have become so inured to all the shamming in plain sight that having it confirmed years later barely even feel like news.
From Slate ● Jul. 22, 2021
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
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
