sham
/ˈʃæm//ˈʃeə̯m/
sham adjective: intended to deceive; false. Also the clipping of champagne.
Adjective
sham (comparative more sham, superlative most sham)
- Intended 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.
- Artiles, a Republican operative with a reputation for a foul mouth and sharp elbows, is accused of financing a sham candidate whose candidacy was intended to siphon votes from a legitimate Democratic candidate in a state Senate race in South Florida’s 37th District. The candidate has the same last...2021 March 18, Scott Glover, Curt Devine and Audrey Ash, “Former Florida state senator charged in spoiler candidate scheme”, in CNN
- Counterfeit; unreal.
- For this young lady was not able to carry out any emotion to the full; but had a sham enthusiasm, a sham hatred, a sham love, a sham taste, a sham grief, each of which flared and shone very vehemently for an instant, but subsided and gave place to the next sham emotion.1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, The History of Pendennis. […], volume II, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC, page 345
- For the subject-cities, having secured a moderate form of government, and having no fear of being called to account for their proceedings, aimed at absolute freedom; they scorned the sham independence proffered to them by the Athenians.1881, Benjamin Jowett, transl., Thucydides, Oxford: Clarendon Press, VIII.64, p. 592
Noun
sham (countable and uncountable, plural shams)
- A fake; an imitation that purports to be genuine.
- The time-share deal was a sham.
- Trickery, 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
- A false front, or removable ornamental covering.
- A decorative cover for a pillow.
Verb
sham (third-person singular simple present shams, present participle shamming, simple past and past participle shammed)
- To deceive, cheat, lie.
- He shammed a migraine to avoid the exam.
- they find themſelves Fool'd and Shamm'd (as we ſay) into a Conviction.1692, Roger L’Estrange, “[The Fables of Abstemius, &c.] Fab[le] CCLIII. Demades the Orator.”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC, page 220
- To obtrude by fraud or imposition.
- But we muſt have a care all this while, not to […] Sham Fallacyes upon the World for Current Reaſon1692, Roger L’Estrange, “[The Fables of Æsop, &c.] Fab[le] CLXII. A Nightingale and a Bat.”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC, page 144
- To assume the manner and character of; to imitate; to ape; to feign.
Proper noun capitalized: Sham
Sham (plural Shams)
- A surname.
Also used as
sham is also the clipping of champagne.
sham meaning in Tamil, Marathi, Bengali and Telugu
sham in Tamil
- ஷாம், ஷம்
sham in Marathi
- शॅम्, शॅम
sham in Bengali
- শাম, শাম্
sham in Telugu
- షామ్, షాం
More languagesFewer languages
- sham in Malayalam
- ഷാം, ഷം
- sham in Kannada
- ಶಾಮ್
- sham in Gujarati
- શૅમ
- sham in Odia
- ଶାମ୍
Examples of sham in a sentence
- None of this is a sham: it is not a put-up show for us.
- In this sham battle, Crow men pretend to count coup on their old enemies, the Piegan.
- Artizona was provided with three P20.00 marked bills to be used in the sham purchase.
Synonyms of sham
Antonyms
Forms of sham
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more sham |
| superlative | most sham |
| Noun | |
| plural | shams |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | shams |
| present participle | shamming |
| past participle | shammed |
| past | shammed |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Shams |
Origin of sham
Probably a dialectal form of shame. Alternatively, sham is a term that is used to describe the bottom thick base of a glass, usually a wine or stem glass, where the stem meets the bulbous shape bowl. Glass manufacturers would increase the "sham" to deceive customers into thinking a glass holds more than it actually does. For example, a manufacturer would mold a 12oz glass with a larger "sham" in the base to reduce the volume of the glasses to fit 10-11oz of liquid. By increasing the bulge in the base, usually where the stem meets the glass, it is almost impossible to visually distinguish the difference. This gives the illusion the glass size is the same as any another 12oz glass, but the inside will hold a lesser volume. Later, bringing use to the term "you got shammed" when one party tries to hide something and/or get over on the other party using deceiving tactics.
It could be from Arabic شَام (šām, literally “Syria”), from which it spread also to Gujarat. Perhaps also an altered spelling of French Cham.
Words formed from sham
Phrases with sham
Words that rhyme with sham
47 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about sham
- What does sham mean?
- Sham means intended to deceive; false.
- What is sham in Tamil?
- Sham in Tamil is ஷாம், ஷம். See Sham meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is sham?
- Sham can be an adjective, a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce sham?
- Sham is pronounced /ˈʃæm/.
Words near sham in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sham (page history and authors); Sham (page history and authors); sham (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sham (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sham (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sham (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sham (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sham (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sham (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sham (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-sham.wav, En-us-sham.oga.
Cite this entry: “sham.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sham. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.