scorn
Americannoun
verb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
idioms
noun
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open contempt or disdain for a person or thing; derision
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an object of contempt or derision
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archaic an act or expression signifying contempt
verb
-
to treat with contempt or derision
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(tr) to reject with contempt
Synonym Usage
See contempt.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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scornernoun
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scornfulnessnoun
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self-scornnoun
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outscornverb (used with object)
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scornfuladjective
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scornfullyadverb
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scorninglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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scornsimple
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scornssimple
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have scornedperfect
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has scornedperfect
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am scorningprogressive
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are scorningprogressive
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is scorningprogressive
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have been scorningperfect progressive
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has been scorningperfect progressive
Past
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scornedsimple
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had scornedperfect
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was scorningprogressive
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were scorningprogressive
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had been scorningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of scorn
First recorded in 1150–1200; (noun) Middle English scorn, scarn, from Old French escarn, from Germanic (compare obsolete Dutch schern “mockery, trickery”); (verb) Middle English skarnen, sc(h)ornen, from Old French escharnir, eschernir, ultimately from Germanic
Explanation
Scorn is open disrespect for someone or something. It can also be disrespect coupled with feelings of intense dislike. The noun scorn describes your feelings of disdain when you encounter something you view as worthless or inferior — like, for instance, a talk show that gets all its facts wrong. Use the verb form for those times when you’re actively expressing scorn. You might scorn a politician who spends $100,000 on travel while claiming to work hard promoting middle-class values.
Vocabulary lists containing scorn
"Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare, Act I
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Declaration of the Rights of Woman (1791)
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List 7
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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:
Much of his scorn, for example, is directed at the millennial Lean In crowd that wanted women to be more like successful men—ambitious and loud.
From Slate ● Jun. 18, 2026
Or maybe Becerra was, indeed, a feckless, flailing and thoroughly awful Cabinet member, deserving of scorn and shame.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 31, 2026
Deserving special scorn are the injection-molded plastic skirts biting into the bottom of the seat cushion.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 30, 2026
The UK’s scorn for Eurovision is something Finland also used to struggle with.
From BBC ● May 17, 2026
‘Or indeed with wit to understand me? Not thou at least!’ he mocked, turning to Aragorn with scorn.
From "The Return of the King" by J.R.R. Tolkien
More than once Mr. Vance scorns elite “strivers” and purports to feel shame that he once tried hard to gain admittance to their circles.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 15, 2026
Martinique official Serge Letchimy hailed a vote that he said had come "to shatter a system that tramples on the truth, absolves the guilty, and scorns the victims".
From Barron's ● Jun. 2, 2026
And she consistently scorns consideration of congressional intent.
From Slate ● Jul. 31, 2023
He scolds her for being insufficiently militant, and scorns the civil rights movement for being too pacific, too slow-moving, to effect real change.
From New York Times ● Nov. 30, 2021
I tells them how it happened in a dream, but they scorns me.
From "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison
Their reunion is surreal because it’s predicated on their mutual ability to admit fault, something that few of us have the opportunity to do after we walk away from a loved one scorned.
From Salon ● Apr. 24, 2026
In England through much of the 20th century, conversion was tolerated—especially if you were creative—but sometimes scorned.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 3, 2026
However, he has scorned the description of Opendoor as a meme stock, describing it instead as a “cult stock.”
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 6, 2025
For a fanbase already scorned by Whittingham's catastrophic ownership, cautious optimism is blended with a desire to hold Panjab Warriors to account.
From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2025
A craftsman of the old school, he scorned progress.
From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith
On the contrary, he mistrusts them, scorning even the praise heaped upon him.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 14, 2026
By scorning this routine digital probing, they attenuate their safety and intensify their exhilaration in roughly equal measure.
From New York Times ● Jul. 12, 2022
He spent a lifetime scorning bigotry as not only immoral but irrational and un-American.
From Slate ● Feb. 16, 2022
Teddy Roosevelt, who became president after McKinley’s assassination, arrived in 1903 “unshaven and travel dusty” and scorning dress duds for a banquet in his honor.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 15, 2022
Making all that show of humbleness and scorning him all the time!
From "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston
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.
