How to use sham in a sentence
23 example sentences · adjective, noun, verb
Sham means intended to deceive; false. Example: “It was only a sham wedding: they didn't care much for one another, but wanted their parents to stop hassling them.”
Examples of sham by meaning
adjectiveIntended to deceive; false.
- It was only a sham wedding: they didn't care much for one another, but wanted their parents to stop hassling them.
nounA fake; an imitation that purports to be genuine.
- The time-share deal was a sham.
nounTrickery, hoaxing.
- A con-man must be skilled in the arts of sham and deceit.
- Tarzan would have none of it, and so he hunted alone that none might discover the sham that he was practicing.1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 75
verbTo deceive, cheat, lie.
- He shammed a migraine to avoid the exam.
More sentences with sham
- None of this is a sham: it is not a put-up show for us.2013 April 3, Anurag Behar, “RTE and the activity trap”, in livemint.com, retrieved 27 Jun 2015. From the entry put-up
- In this sham battle, Crow men pretend to count coup on their old enemies, the Piegan.2012, Lillian Bullshows Hogan, Barbara Loeb, Mardell Hogan Plainfeather, “Memories of Youth”, in The Woman Who Loved Mankind: The Life of…. From the entry count coup
- Artizona was provided with three P20.00 marked bills to be used in the sham purchase.1992 April 7, Supreme Court of the Philippines, “PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES vs. WILLY BAGAWE y PAGALLA”, in G.R. Nos. 88515-16, archived…. From the entry Poliwes
- The supervisor noticed that the Grievant had missewed a sham and helped her assemble her work.1991, Randy Hodson, Labor Arbitration Information System, page 289. From the entry missew
- He was better off without his daily dose of world botheration, sham happenings, without newspaper phrases.1982, Saul Bellow, chapter 4, in The Dean's December, New York: Pocket Books, published 1983, page 59. From the entry botheration
- Additional control (sham) and postischemia groups received SAA+ cells.2015 July 2, Kelly KJ, Zhang J, Han L, Kamocka M, Miller C, Gattone VH II, et al., “Improved Structure and Function in Autosomal Recessive…. From the entry postischemia
- Perla Lowell's marriage was a painful sham, so now—penniless and alone —she refuses to let this dark-hearted Greek intimidate her.2014, Maya Blake, What the Greek Can't Resist, →ISBN. From the entry dark-hearted
- The curt take on VHS is that it is a dead format, a quaint and sham way to watch a movie.2009, Jacques Boyreau, Portable Grindhouse: The Lost Art of the VHS Box, page 5. From the entry VHS
- The reason why Jon & Kate Plus 8 is such a hot topic is because it might all be a sham.2009 May 22, Stuart Heritage, “Jon & Kate Latest: People You Don’t Know Do Crap You Don’t Care About”, in Hecklerspray, archived from the…. From the entry heroin
- This sham and duplicity cannot be longer excused or tolerated.1906 October, “Homeopathy vs. Anti-pathy”, in H[enry] C[lay] Allen, editor, The Medical Advance and Journal of Homeopathics, volume XLIV…. From the entry antipathic
- Sham Shui Po might be one of Hong Kong’s poorest neighbourhoods but it has a rich immigrant history and a glut of fantastic street-food joints.2021 August 18, Lee Cobaj, “Best things to do in Hong Kong”, in The Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 25 Oct 2021. From the entry joint
- Either way, effectively the government is simply using the hypothecated tax as part of general revenue, and the hypothecation is a sham.2006, Julian Le Grand, Motivation, Agency, and Public Policy, →ISBN, page 155. From the entry hypothecation
- Yet, she responded favorably to this drollery, with the proviso that the President includes himself in the farcical charade, which (in sham fashion) Marcos has obliged.2025 September 5, Van Ybiernas, “The most dangerous forms of corruption are subtle and below the radar”, in The Manila Times, retrieved 07…. From the entry inutile
- The rat acute myocardial infarction model was reproduced by ligaturing the left anterior descending artery excluding the sham operation group which did not ligation only completed the operational process.2015 August 13, Wei Li et al., “Effect of Ginkgo biloba extract on experimental cardiac remodeling”, in BMC Complementary and Alternative…. From the entry ligaturing
- Again, if one were inclined to be impolite, he might go so far as to say that the so-called two-party system in this country is a sham.2010, Robert Ringer, Restoring the American Dream. From the entry Demopublican
- When I went back, years and years later, she was a drunken, painted sham, still thinking herself the imperatrix of Mareshank, pretending sweet in that broken-down big house.2007, Katherine Baccaro, Precipice: A Novel of Lust and Lies, →ISBN, page 307. From the entry imperatrix
- Animals designated as normogonadic controls (CTRL) and normogonadic obese (OGD) underwent a sham operation where an external scrotal and peri-scrotal incision was made before closing both wounds as described above.2015 September 15, “Impact of Diet-Induced Obesity and Testosterone Deficiency on the Cardiovascular System: A Novel Rodent Model…. From the entry normogonadic
- "And the extent of your achievement has been to contrive a vulgar imposture—in the guise of an ingenious inventor to swindle society by a sham automaton that doesn't even work."1923, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], “(please specify the page)”, in The Eyes of Max Carrados, London: Grant Richards…. From the entry imposture
Meaning of sham
- adjective Intended to deceive; false.
- adjective Counterfeit; unreal.
- noun A fake; an imitation that purports to be genuine.
Questions about sham in a sentence
- How do you use sham in a sentence?
- Sham is used as an adjective, noun and verb. For example: “It was only a sham wedding: they didn't care much for one another, but wanted their parents to stop hassling them.”
- What is a short sentence with sham?
- “The time-share deal was a sham.”
- What does sham mean?
- Sham means intended to deceive; false.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sham (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this page: “How to use sham in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/sham. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
