Word.ws English Dictionary

slut-shame

slut-shame verb: to make a person (especially a woman) feel guilty or inferior for sexual activity, desires, expression, or circumstances that deviate from traditional or orthodox gender expectations or religious or cultural standards.

Verb

slut-shame (third-person singular simple present slut-shames, present participle slut-shaming, simple past and past participle slut-shamed)

  1. To make a person (especially a woman) feel guilty or inferior for sexual activity, desires, expression, or circumstances that deviate from traditional or orthodox gender expectations or religious or cultural standards.
    • There seems to be no middle ground between embracing one's inner porn star and slut-shaming the women who find themselves pressured or lured into sex-related work because they have few other options.2013, Jennifer Keishin Armstrong, Heather Wood Rudúlph, Sexy Feminism: A Girl's Guide to Love, Success, and Style, Mariner Books, published 2013, →ISBN, page 119
    • His accuser was publicly reviled—viciously slut-shamed, in some cases—and withdrew from classes.2014, Steve Almond, Against Football: One Fan's Reluctant Manifesto, Melville House, published 2014, →ISBN

Forms of slut-shame

third-person singular presentslut-shames
present participleslut-shaming
past participleslut-shamed
pastslut-shamed
alternative formslut shame
alternative formslutshame

Words formed from slut-shame

Questions about slut-shame

What does slut-shame mean?
Slut-shame means to make a person (especially a woman) feel guilty or inferior for sexual activity, desires, expression, or circumstances that deviate from traditional or orthodox gender expectations or religious or cultural standards.
What part of speech is slut-shame?
Slut-shame is a verb.
What is the past tense of slut-shame?
The past tense of slut-shame is slut-shamed.

Words near slut-shame in the dictionary

  1. slut-bags
  2. slut-cover
  3. slut-covers
  4. slut-maker
  5. slut-makers
  6. slut-shame
  7. slut-shamed
  8. slut-shames
  9. slut-shamey
  10. slut-shaming
  11. slutbag

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: slut-shame (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-slut-shame.wav.

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