sham
Frequently Asked Questions
- The “charity” event was a sham—it was just an excuse for a tax write-off.
- I knew something about him seemed fake, but I didn’t expect him to turn out to be a complete sham.
- The dictator is known for holding sham elections to give the appearance of legitimacy.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The sham thrust to the forefront a growing problem: Law enforcement agencies across the country increasingly are receiving photos and other evidence that’s been manipulated or wholly generated with artificial intelligence, experts say.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
Manchester City being found guilty of fuelling an era of glittering Premier League success via a network of sponsorship deals, found by an independent commision to be a "sham", has shaken the world of sport.
From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026
That is the Oxford English definition of the word "sham".
From BBC ● Sep. 29, 2026
It would also lead to more sham businesses and fewer real ones.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 20, 2026
Mark Antony went along with the sham, but it cost him dearly.
From "Sterling Biographies®: Cleopatra: Egypt's Last and Greatest Queen" by Susan Blackaby
In Minnesota, some Medicaid autism treatment centers, transportation providers and housing purveyors were shams.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 29, 2026
We make our custom shams 1 inch smaller than the fill to achieve the really full look.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 3, 2023
He knows he can turn proceduralist rules into shams, and he knows most of his staff is either too constrained to do anything about it or unaware of what’s really going on.
From Slate ● Dec. 2, 2021
When they couldn't get answers, that's when they dug into it more, they determined they were shams and they began to short them.
From Salon ● Mar. 31, 2021
The history of race relations in Durham was, after all, a long line of such shams extending back for a century.
From "The Best of Enemies" by Osha Gray Davidson
I don’t feel like I got shammed or look like a fool.
From Slate ● Jul. 19, 2018
That's about the tenth time to-day you've shammed fright.
From Menotah A Tale of the Riel Rebellion by Ernest G. Henham
Hadji said he was ill of fever, and seemed like an idiot; but the orderly said that the illness was shammed and the stupidity assumed in order not to work.
From Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan, Volume I (of 2) Including a Summer in the Upper Karun Region and a Visit to the Nestorian Rayahs by Isabella L. (Isabella Lucy) Bird
“So—ye are not believing me—” Patsy shammed a solemn, grieved look.
From Seven Miles to Arden by Ruth Sawyer
Then Schaffer came home and he called him in, that the boy might say that he was in bed and undressed; but when Graham entered he shammed sleep.
From Campaigning with Crook and Stories of Army Life by Charles King
In a sense, then, because the shamming always happened openly, the revelation that it was shamatory feels underwhelming.
From Slate ● Jul. 22, 2021
We have become so inured to all the shamming in plain sight that having it confirmed years later barely even feel like news.
From Slate ● Jul. 22, 2021
We hope that, like the seemingly mad Edgar in King Lear, Daryl is just shamming – and that he will, like the Shakespearean dissembler, cast off his mask and take out the evil trash.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 14, 2016
If your point is that Peter is only shamming about his politics, how do you explain this willingness to be imprisoned for them?
From The Guardian ● Oct. 5, 2010
He was not even sure if Cluny was shamming, pretending that his injuries were severe merely as some kind of test or trap that he had set for his captains.
From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques
Vocabulary lists containing sham
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
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Refugee
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This Week in Words: April 1 - 6, 2018
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