scorn
Americannoun
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scorns
plural
verb (used with object)
-
scorns,
present (3rd person singular)
-
scorned,
past participle, past
-
scorning
present participle
verb (used without object)
-
scorns,
present (3rd person singular)
-
scorned,
past participle, past
-
scorning
present participle
idioms
noun
-
open contempt or disdain for a person or thing; derision
-
an object of contempt or derision
-
archaic an act or expression signifying contempt
verb
-
to treat with contempt or derision
-
(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
-
outscornverb (used with object)
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scornfuladjective
-
scornfullyadverb
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scorninglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
scornsimple
-
scornssimple
-
have scornedperfect
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has scornedperfect
-
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
-
scornedsimple
-
had scornedperfect
-
was scorningprogressive
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were scorningprogressive
-
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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List 7
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Declaration of the Rights of Woman (1791)
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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:
Its long-delayed opening in late 2021 was met with more scorn than praise.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 26, 2026
"And I'm not saying that out of scorn."
From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2026
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
And so the two fell to angry looks and hatred, although the elder, being proud of her correctness, would deal only in silent scorn, careful to ignore the other’s very presence.
From "The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck
It scorns those who won’t shake hands with an opponent postgame.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 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
But it also turns him into a lonely, rigidly neoclassicist oddball who scorns his professors, prefers books to his flighty peers and still can’t seem to take care of himself.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 25, 2025
And she consistently scorns consideration of congressional intent.
From Slate ● Jul. 31, 2023
I tells them how it happened in a dream, but they scorns me.
From "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison
These same dons disdained Britain’s provincial universities—known pejoratively as Redbrick—as well as academics in the U.S., whom they scorned for going about their business with “woefully unnecessary seriousness.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 30, 2026
Brook could have appeared scorned after being overlooked for his friend and team-mate.
From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026
There are few things more universally powerful than a mama’s boy scorned.
From Salon ● May 10, 2026
A few years later, scorned by the king, Magellan is limping around Lisbon like a scruffy, taskless animal.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 9, 2026
His enemies and doubters, however, said that this Gotama was an idle fraud; he passed his days in high living, scorned the sacrifices, was unlearned and knew neither practices nor mortification of the flesh.
From "Siddhartha" by Hermann Hesse
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
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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.
