sham

noun/ʃæm/

Frequency rank: #8,157 of 20,003 in the WORDED list (wordfreq data)

Meaning

something that is not what it appears to be; a fraud or fake.

Illustration for the English word “sham”

Example sentence

The charity turned out to be a total sham designed to steal money from generous donors.

Synonyms & related words

More words in ranks 8,101–8,200