sham means "something that is a counterfeit; not what it seems to be". That is the primary sense; the word has 5 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in sham?

sham has 1 syllable: sham. In IPA it is /ˈʃæm/.

What is another word for sham?

Close synonyms include fake, postiche, imposter, impostor, pretender. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is sham a common word?

sham is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.

sham — meaning, pronunciation and 5 definitions

noun

2 sensesA person, place, thing, quality or idea.

1.
something that is a counterfeit; not what it seems to be
Synonymsfake postiche
Broaderimitation
Narrowerfake book Potemkin village
2.
a person who makes deceitful pretenses
Synonymsimposter impostor pretender fake faker fraud shammer pseudo pseud role player
Broaderdeceiver
Narrowername dropper ringer

verb

2 sensesAn action, occurrence or state of being.

1.
make a pretence of
“She assumed indifference, even though she was seething with anger”
“he feigned sleep”
Synonymssimulate assume feign
Broaderdissemble
Narrowerplay feint
2.
make believe with the intent to deceive
“He feigned that he was ill”
“He shammed a headache”
Synonymsfeign pretend affect dissemble
Broadermisrepresent
Narrowerplay possum take a dive talk through one's hat mouth

adjective

1 senseA word that describes or qualifies a noun.

1.
adopted in order to deceive
“an assumed name”
“an assumed cheerfulness”
“a fictitious address”
“fictive sympathy”
“a pretended interest”
“a put-on childish voice”
“sham modesty”
Synonymsassumed false fictitious fictive pretended put on
Similarcounterfeit

Other forms of sham

plural: shams·
past tense or participle: shammed
present participle: shamming

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about sham

What does sham mean?: sham means "something that is a counterfeit; not what it seems to be". That is the primary sense; the word has 5 in total, listed in full on this page.
How many syllables are in sham?: sham has 1 syllable: sham. In IPA it is /ˈʃæm/.
What is another word for sham?: Close synonyms include fake, postiche, imposter, impostor, pretender. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.
Is sham a common word?: sham is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.

Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for sham come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.

noun

2 sensesA person, place, thing, quality or idea.

1.
something that is a counterfeit; not what it seems to be
Synonymsfake postiche
Broaderimitation
Narrowerfake book Potemkin village
2.
a person who makes deceitful pretenses
Synonymsimposter impostor pretender fake faker fraud shammer pseudo pseud role player
Broaderdeceiver
Narrowername dropper ringer

verb

2 sensesAn action, occurrence or state of being.

1.
make a pretence of
“She assumed indifference, even though she was seething with anger”
“he feigned sleep”
Synonymssimulate assume feign
Broaderdissemble
Narrowerplay feint
2.
make believe with the intent to deceive
“He feigned that he was ill”
“He shammed a headache”
Synonymsfeign pretend affect dissemble
Broadermisrepresent
Narrowerplay possum take a dive talk through one's hat mouth

adjective

1 senseA word that describes or qualifies a noun.

1.
adopted in order to deceive
“an assumed name”
“an assumed cheerfulness”
“a fictitious address”
“fictive sympathy”
“a pretended interest”
“a put-on childish voice”
“sham modesty”
Synonymsassumed false fictitious fictive pretended put on
Similarcounterfeit

Other forms of sham

plural: shams·
past tense or participle: shammed
present participle: shamming

Questions about sham

What does sham mean?: sham means "something that is a counterfeit; not what it seems to be". That is the primary sense; the word has 5 in total, listed in full on this page.
How many syllables are in sham?: sham has 1 syllable: sham. In IPA it is /ˈʃæm/.
What is another word for sham?: Close synonyms include fake, postiche, imposter, impostor, pretender. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.
Is sham a common word?: sham is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.

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sham

noun

verb

adjective

Other forms of sham

Questions about sham

Tools

Jump to

Images & video

PDF & writing

Calculate & convert

Health & fitness

AI, code & work

Learn & play

Tool directories

Search

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Theme

sham

noun

verb

adjective

Other forms of sham

Questions about sham