Word.ws English Dictionary

scorn

UK/skɔːn//skɔɹn/

scorn verb: to feel or display contempt or disdain for something or somebody; to despise.

Verb

scorn (third-person singular simple present scorns, present participle scorning, simple past and past participle scorned)

  1. (transitive) To feel or display contempt or disdain for something or somebody; to despise.
    • The Cry is ſtill, they come: our Caſtles ſtrength / Will laugh a Siedge to ſcornec. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
    • We scorn what is in itself contemptible or disgraceful.1871, C. J. Smith, Synonyms Discriminated
  2. (transitive) To reject, turn down with disdain.
    • He scorned her romantic advances.
    • Heav'n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn'd, / Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman ſcorn'd.1697, [William] Congreve, The Mourning Bride, a Tragedy. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, Act III, page 39
    Synonyms:
    spurn
  3. (transitive) To refuse to do something, as beneath oneself.
    • She scorned to show weakness.
  4. (intransitive) To scoff, to express contempt.
    • For miſerie doth braueſt mindes abate, / And make them ſeeke for that they wont to ſcorne, / Of fortune and of hope at once forlorne.1578–1579, Ed[mund] Sp[enser], “Prosopopoia. Or Mother Hubberds Tale. [...] Dedicated to the Right Honorable the Ladie Compton and Mountegle”, in Complaints. Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the...

Noun

scorn (countable and uncountable, plural scorns)

  1. (uncountable) Contempt or disdain.
    • Rain of tears, real, mist of imagined scorn1967, John Berryman, Berryman’s Sonnets, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
  2. (countable) A display of disdain; a slight.
    • VVith ſcoffes and ſcornes, and contumelious taunts, / In open Market-place produc't they me, / To be a publique ſpectacle to all: / Here, ſayd they, is the Terror of the French, / The Scar-Crovv that affrights our Children ſo.1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
    • Every sullen frown and bitter scorn / But fanned the fuel that too fast did burn.1685, John Dryden, The Despairing Lover
  3. (countable) An object of disdain, contempt, or derision.
    • Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 44:13

scorn meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

scorn in Hindi

to feel contempt or disdain for something or somebody
तिरस्कार करना tiraskār karnā

scorn in Tamil

to feel contempt or disdain for something or somebody
இகழ் ikaḻ

scorn in Urdu

scorn
گھن ghin

scorn in Bengali

অবজ্ঞা, ঘৃণা
More languagesFewer languages
scorn in Telugu
ధిక్కారము dhikkāramu
scorn in Malayalam
അകനിന്ദ akaninda, നിഷേധിക്കുക niṣēdhikkuka
scorn in Kannada
ತಿರಸ್ಕಾರ, ಅವಹೇಳನ, ಧಿಕ್ಕಾರ, ಹೀನೈಕೆ
scorn in Arabic
اِحْتَقَرَ iḥtaqara, استنكف, استخف
scorn in Persian
حقارت heqârat
scorn in Vietnamese
khinh bỉ, khinh miệt

Examples of scorn in a sentence

  • My teacher poured scorn on my attempts at writing.
  • I've incurred scorn and odium for my actions.
  • Zucchini and cauliflower seem to be widely scorned vegetables.

All 40 example sentences with scorn

Synonyms of scorn

10 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of scorn

Forms of scorn

Verb
third-person singular presentscorns
present participlescorning
past participlescorned
pastscorned
Noun
pluralscorns

Past tense of scorn: scorned

Origin of scorn

Verb from Middle English scornen, schornen, alteration of Old French escharnir, from Vulgar Latin *escarnire, from Proto-West Germanic *skarnijan, possibly from Proto-Germanic *skeraną (“to shear”) (from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut”)), or possibly related to *skarną (“dung, filth”) (from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱerd-, *(s)ḱer- (“dung, manure, filth”)). Noun from Old French escarn (cognate with Portuguese escárnio, Spanish escarnio and Italian scherno). Cognate with Middle High German schern (“joke, mockery, scorn”), Old English sċierniċġe (“female entertainer, juggler, actress”).

Words formed from scorn

Phrases with scorn

Words that rhyme with scorn

25 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about scorn

What does scorn mean?
Scorn means to feel or display contempt or disdain for something or somebody; to despise.
What is scorn in Hindi?
Scorn in Hindi is तिरस्कार करना (tiraskār karnā). See Scorn meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is scorn?
Scorn can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce scorn?
Scorn is pronounced /skɔːn/ (UK).
What is the past tense of scorn?
The past tense of scorn is scorned.

Words near scorn in the dictionary

  1. scoring through
  2. scorings
  3. scorious
  4. Scorlibran
  5. SCORM
  6. scorn
  7. scorn'd
  8. scorne
  9. scorned
  10. scornedst
  11. scornee

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: scorn (page history and authors); گھن (Urdu) (page history and authors); Scorn (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ధిక్కారము (Telugu) (page history and authors); അകനിന്ദ (Malayalam) (page history and authors); scorn (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “scorn.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/scorn. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.