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:
The latest targets are New York’s sham adult day care centers, which state officials are finally investigating after a push from Washington.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 2026
"However, if that evidence was already before the Commission, which nevertheless concluded that the arrangements were a sham, City will face an uphill struggle to demonstrate the finding was materially wrong."
From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2026
An independent commission found that, during that time period, the club arranged "sham contracts" as well as "relying on sham agreements to artificially inflate the club's revenues and reduce its costs".
From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2026
Both the GAE and sham treatment groups experienced sustained reductions in pain, but researchers found no statistically significant difference between them.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 14, 2026
To biologists, the apparent fertility of the upland forest is a sham.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
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
Even so, auditors at EY, also known as Ernst & Young, eventually blessed the transactions, which federal authorities now claim were shams, according to previously unreported documents made public in a court case last year.
From New York Times ● Jul. 7, 2022
Tatyana Stanovaya, founder and CEO of R.Politik, an independent think tank on Russian politics, thinks Putin doesn’t want to rush the referendums and run the risk of them being denounced as shams.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 3, 2022
“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
One of them stumbled, fell, held his breath and shammed dead.
From The Glow-Worm and Other Beetles by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos
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 fact, half of his sickness was shammed.
From Raiding with Morgan by Byron A. (Byron Archibald) Dunn
Many of the guests left before dinner; others shammed gaiety.
From More Tales by Polish Authors by Various
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
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
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.
