sham

noun \ ˈsham \

|Updated on: 20 Jul 2018

Tip: Synonym Guide

Examples: sham in a Sentence

Definition of sham

1 : a trick that deludes : hoax

feared that the deal was a sham

2 : cheap falseness : hypocrisy

saw through the hollowness, the sham, the silliness of the empty pageant
—Oscar Wilde

3 : an ornamental covering for a pillow

4 : an imitation or counterfeit purporting to be genuine

5 : a person who shams

See sham defined for English-language learners

See sham defined for kids

Examples of sham in a Sentence

He claims that the trial was a sham.
Their marriage was a sham.
Many people believed he could help them, but I knew he was a sham.
She exposed their sham and hypocrisy.

Recent Examples of sham from the Web

The Millers then signed and notarized the loan documents and returned them to the banks, instructing the banks to wire the fraudulent loan proceeds to multiple bank accounts in the name of sham corporations the brothers established.

— cyrus moulton, chicagotribune.com, "Chicago brothers who ran fake airplane loan scheme sent to prison," 8 June 2018
The prices are pretty reasonable, starting at $36, and going up to $179 for a full/queen comforter and sham set.

— danielle tullo, House Beautiful, "American Eagle and Dormify Just Dropped the Home Decor Collaboration of Your Dreams," 8 June 2018
In his victory speech, Erdogan argued that the high turnout meant Western nations could not claim his elections were a sham.

— billy perrigo, Time, "What Erdogan’s Election Victory Means For Turkey’s Future," 25 June 2018
Read another way, the state of New York is alleging that the president's charity was a sham.

— amber phillips, Washington Post, "The president of the United States was just accused of persistent charity fraud," 14 June 2018
Long lines of voters gathered in Bogota outside polling centers on an overcast day and police frisked people in at least one site — a legacy perhaps of when voting centers were targeted by leftist rebels who considered the political system a sham.

— christine armario and joshua goodman, BostonGlobe.com, "Conservative tops Colombia presidential vote but runoff needed," 28 May 2018
In other words, the fire code that covers one of the world’s global capitals is a sham.

— justin davidson, Daily Intelligencer, "A Year Has Passed Since the Grenfell Tower Fire. It Could Happen Again Anytime.," 14 June 2018
Trump's overture to Putin was criticized by senators in his own Republican party, who called Sunday's election a sham.

— steve holland, Anchorage Daily News, "Russia leak angers Trump, frustrates chief of staff, sources say," 21 Mar. 2018
Most Venezuela experts call the vote a sham after Maduro systematically turned what had once been Latin America’s most vibrant democracy into an authoritarian regime that controls the local media and jails political enemies.

— ben bartenstein, Bloomberg.com, "Wall Street’s Venezuela Contrarian Dials Up His Wildest Call Yet," 28 Feb. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'sham.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of sham

perhaps from English dialect sham shame, alteration of English shame

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First Known Use: 1677

in the meaning defined at sense 1

See Words from the same year

sham Synonyms

Synonym Discussion of sham

imposture, fraud, sham, fake, humbug, counterfeit mean a thing made to seem other than it is. imposture applies to any situation in which a spurious object or performance is passed off as genuine.

- their claim of environmental concern is an imposture

fraud usually implies a deliberate perversion of the truth.

- the diary was exposed as a fraud

sham applies to fraudulent imitation of a real thing or action.

- condemned the election as a sham

fake implies an imitation of or substitution for the genuine but does not necessarily imply dishonesty.

- these jewels are fakes; the real ones are in the vault

humbug suggests elaborate pretense usually so flagrant as to be transparent.

- creating publicity by foisting humbugs on a gullible public

counterfeit applies especially to the close imitation of something valuable.

- 20-dollar bills that were counterfeits

Other Household Terms

cruet, curiosity, duvet, fiasco, taper, valance, whatnot

sham

adjective

Definition of sham

1 : not genuine : false, feigned

2 : having such poor quality as to seem false

See sham defined for English-language learners

Examples of sham in a Sentence

a sofa upholstered in sham leather
street vendors selling sham designer handbags to gullible tourists

Recent Examples of sham from the Web

Prosecutors allege Pam bilked the estates of most of the proceeds from the sale of the Sanford Street home by arranging a sham transaction in which his then-girlfriend, Jasmin Deangelo, purportedly purchased the property for $140,000 in April 2015.

— laura crimaldi, BostonGlobe.com, "Pam family members go on trial for allegedly scamming elderly siblings out of Mattapan home," 13 July 2018
Over the years, taking a sugar pill, receiving a sham injection, or even just visiting a doctor has been shown to reduce pain, lower blood pressure, and relieve depression.

— jacqueline detwiler, Popular Mechanics, "I Hacked My Body So You Don't Have To," 25 June 2018
Plea bargains are the norm in Israel’s military justice system, which is characterized by prolonged pretrial detention, abuse of kids and sham trials.

— lawahez jabari, NBC News, "Ahed Tamimi, Palestinian teen on trial for hitting soldier, agrees to plea deal: report," 21 Mar. 2018
From January 2014 through October 2017, Mencia, and three members of his office staff conspired to perform sham consultations with cash-paying patients, investigators said.

— susannah bryan, Sun-Sentinel.com, "'Pill mill' doc who prescribed 1.2 million doses of opioids found guilty," 1 July 2018
The dpa news agency reported that the raids are focusing on traffickers bringing people from Pakistan and India by arranging sham marriages for them in Germany.

— Fox News, "German police raid homes looking for human traffickers," 13 June 2018
The network may have facilitated up to 1,000 sham marriages in the last two years, federal police spokesman Joerg Ristow said regarding the German-Danish investigation.

— Washington Post, "German, Danish police conduct raids regarding sham marriages," 13 June 2018
Telling the truth about a sham election may help puncture a big lie that keeps Maduro in power.

— The Christian Science Monitor, "The power of truth-telling about Venezuela," 8 June 2018
Isn’t that exactly what Maduro did in Venezuela’s sham May 20 election?

— andrés oppenheimer, miamiherald, "Why are U.S., Latin America tough on Venezuela but soft on Nicaragua? They’re both dictatorships!," 8 June 2018

First Known Use of sham

1681

in the meaning defined at sense 1

See Words from the same year

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sham Synonyms

Synonyms

affected, artificial, assumed, bogus, contrived, factitious, fake, false, feigned, forced, mechanical, mock, phony (also phoney), plastic, pretended, pseudo, put-on, simulated, strained, unnatural;

Antonyms

artless, genuine, natural, spontaneous, unaffected, uncontrived, unfeigned, unforced;

Near Antonyms

authentic, bona fide, real, realistic, right, true;

honest, ingenuous, sincere, unpretending;

easy, effortless, smooth;

extemporaneous, impromptu, impulsive, instinctive, unconscious, unprompted, unrehearsed, unstudied;

double-dealing, empty, facile, hollow, hypocritical, insincere, left-handed, mealy, mealymouthed, two-faced, unctuous;

exaggerated, histrionic, melodramatic, overacted, overdone, theatrical (also theatric);

cute, cutesy, genteel, goody-goody, mincing, overrefined, simpering;

conventional, formal, impersonal, inflexible, rigid, stiff, stylized, wooden;

artful, calculated, conscious, cultivated, deliberate, premeditated, studied;

sham

verb

Definition of sham

shammed; shamming

transitive verb

: to go through the external motions necessary to counterfeit

intransitive verb

: to act intentionally so as to give a false impression : feign

—

shammer

play \ˈsha-mər\ noun

See sham defined for English-language learners

Examples of sham in a Sentence

She wasn't really hurt; she was only shamming.
He was shamming illness to avoid work.

Recent Examples of sham from the Web

But this was my first, and not my last, mommy shaming experience.

— stephanie nolasco, Fox News, "Coco Rocha recalls being shamed online over her parenting skills: 'I would cry in the shower'," 5 July 2018
Unmarried pregnant women were routinely sent away to give birth and were coerced or sometimes forced into giving up their children for adoption — and then shamed into silence.

— jill filipovic, Time, "America Will Lose More Than Abortion Rights If Roe v. Wade Is Overturned," 28 June 2018
In other words, shaming people into losing weight doesn't work.

— kevin klatt, SELF, "Why Weight Loss Diets Fail," 26 June 2018
The simple fact is that Crisis Pregnancy Centers offer deceptive and often unlicensed patient care, and perpetuate a culture where people are shamed for their personal healthcare choices.

— madeleine aggeler, The Cut, "Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Anti-Abortion Groups That Lie to Pregnant Women," 26 June 2018
Men Are Trash: Charles Melton fat shaming people on Twitter.

— tamara fuentes, Seventeen, "Riverdale Star Charles Melton Apologizes For Fat-Shaming Tweets," 20 June 2018
Now they are named and shamed after being arrested.

— The Economist, "The calculations of Muhammad bin Salman," 7 June 2018
Photos of my bare breasts and face reached the screens of boys at my high school and across the state, with the intent of exposing my nudity and shaming my body.

— leah juliett, Glamour, "Why Revenge Porn Needs Its Own #MeToo Movement," 4 June 2018
Additionally, Davis alleged that Texans cheerleaders were shamed via mass e-mails blasted to the whole squad.

— michelle ruiz, Vanities, "“Crack Whores” and “Jelly Bellies”: A Former N.F.L. Cheerleader Reveals the Bullying and Body-Shaming Off the Field," 4 June 2018

First Known Use of sham

1702

in the meaning defined at intransitive sense

See Words from the same year

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sham Synonyms

Synonyms

act, affect, assume, bluff, counterfeit, dissemble, fake, feign, pass (for), pretend, profess, put on, simulate;

forge, imitate;

camouflage, conceal, disguise, mask;

feint;

malinger;

Phrases

make believe;

Synonym Discussion of sham

assume, affect, pretend, simulate, feign, counterfeit, sham mean to put on a false or deceptive appearance. assume often implies a justifiable motive rather than an intent to deceive.

- assumed an air of cheerfulness around the patients

affect implies making a false show of possessing, using, or feeling.

- affected an interest in art

pretend implies an overt and sustained false appearance.

- pretended that nothing had happened

simulate suggests a close imitation of the appearance of something.

- cosmetics that simulate a suntan

feign implies more artful invention than pretend, less specific mimicry than simulate.

- feigned sickness

counterfeit implies achieving the highest degree of verisimilitude of any of these words.

- an actor counterfeiting drunkenness

sham implies an obvious falseness that fools only the gullible.

- shammed a most unconvincing limp

SHAM Defined for English Language Learners

sham

noun

Definition of sham for English Language Learners

: something that is not what it appears to be and that is meant to trick or deceive people
: someone who deceives people by pretending to be a particular kind of person, to have a particular skill, etc.
: words or actions that are not sincere or honest

sham

adjective

Definition of sham for English Language Learners

: not real

sham

verb

Definition of sham for English Language Learners

: to act in a way that is meant to trick or deceive people

SHAM Defined for Kids

sham

noun \ ˈsham \

Definition of sham for Students

1 : something that deceives : hoax

2 : something that is claimed to be true or real but which is actually phony

3 : a decorative covering for a pillow

sham

adjective

Definition of sham for Students

: not real : false

sham concern

sham

verb

Definition of sham for Students

shammed; shamming

: to act in a deceiving way

Medical Dictionary

sham

adjective \ ˈsham \

medical Definition of sham

: being a treatment or procedure that is performed as a control and that is similar to but omits a key therapeutic element of the treatment or procedure under investigation

sham surgery, in which doctors make an incision in a patient's knee and manipulate the joint, but don't clean out fluid, debris, and torn cartilage
—Liz Kowalczyk