shame
/ˈʃæɪ̯m/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.55 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An uncomfortable or painful feeling due to recognition or consciousness of one's own impropriety or dishonor, or something being exposed that should have been kept private.
Uncountable
noun
The capacity to be ashamed, inhibiting one from brazen behaviour; due regard for one's own moral conduct and how one is perceived by others; restraint, moderation, decency.
Uncountable
intj
A cry of admonition for the subject of a speech, either to denounce the speaker or to agree with the speaker's denunciation of some person or matter; often used reduplicated, especially in political debates.
intj
Ellipsis of what a shame; expressing disappointment or sympathy
Example Sentences
- "When I realized that I had hurt my friend, I felt deep shame."
- "The teenager couldn’t bear the shame of introducing his parents."
- "When he had saied no: what (ſaid Ariſtippus) is it ſhame to ſaile in a Shippe, that hath afoꝛetymes caried a great nomber mo: […]"
- "Have you no modesty, no maiden shame?"
- "When this conversation was repeated in detail within the hearing of the young woman in question, and undoubtedly for his benefit, Mr. Trevor threw shame to the winds and scandalized the Misses Brewster then and there by proclaiming his father to have been a country storekeeper."
- "It was a shame not to see the show after driving all that way."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *skamō Proto-West Germanic *skamu Old English sċamu Middle English schame English shame From Middle English schame, from Old English sċamu, from Proto-West Germanic *skamu, from Proto-Germanic *skamō. Cognates *German Scham (“shame”) *German Low German Schaam (“shame, shamefacedness”) *Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, Swedish skam (“shame”) *Faroese skomm (“shame, dishonour”) *Icelandic skömm (“shame”) *Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌰𐌼𐌰 (skama, “shame”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈʃæɪ̯m/
Usage
Inflected Forms
shames (plural)
more shame (comparative)
most shame (superlative)
shames (present, singular)
shaming (participle, present)
shamed (participle, past)
shamed (past)
no-table-tags (table tags)
glossary (inflection template)
shamed (first person, past)
shamest (archaic, present)
shamed (past, second person)