scorn
Americannoun
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scorns
plural
verb (used with object)
-
scorns,
present (3rd person singular)
-
scorned,
past participle, past
-
scorning
present participle
verb (used without object)
-
scorns,
present (3rd person singular)
-
scorned,
past participle, past
-
scorning
present participle
idioms
noun
-
open contempt or disdain for a person or thing; derision
-
an object of contempt or derision
-
archaic an act or expression signifying contempt
verb
-
to treat with contempt or derision
-
(tr) to reject with contempt
Synonym Usage
See contempt.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
scornernoun
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scornfulnessnoun
-
self-scornnoun
-
outscornverb (used with object)
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scornfuladjective
-
scornfullyadverb
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scorninglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
scornsimple
-
scornssimple
-
have scornedperfect
-
has scornedperfect
-
am scorningprogressive
-
are scorningprogressive
-
is scorningprogressive
-
have been scorningperfect progressive
-
has been scorningperfect progressive
Past
-
scornedsimple
-
had scornedperfect
-
was scorningprogressive
-
were scorningprogressive
-
had been scorningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of scorn
First recorded in 1150–1200; (noun) Middle English scorn, scarn, from Old French escarn, from Germanic (compare obsolete Dutch schern “mockery, trickery”); (verb) Middle English skarnen, sc(h)ornen, from Old French escharnir, eschernir, ultimately from Germanic
Explanation
Scorn is open disrespect for someone or something. It can also be disrespect coupled with feelings of intense dislike. The noun scorn describes your feelings of disdain when you encounter something you view as worthless or inferior — like, for instance, a talk show that gets all its facts wrong. Use the verb form for those times when you’re actively expressing scorn. You might scorn a politician who spends $100,000 on travel while claiming to work hard promoting middle-class values.
Vocabulary lists containing scorn
"Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare, Act I
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Declaration of the Rights of Woman (1791)
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List 7
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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:
He held particular scorn for the flat-earthers, who he thought were plants to discredit genuine research about extraterrestrial technology.
From Slate ● Sep. 22, 2026
On the other side of that line stands Kiffin, boldly sticking by his plan while the rest of the college football world heaps scorn on him.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
But this claim that has attracted scorn from figures in the art world.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
Or maybe Becerra was, indeed, a feckless, flailing and thoroughly awful Cabinet member, deserving of scorn and shame.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 31, 2026
“That’s the duty of the old,” said the Librarian, “to be anxious on behalf of the young. And the duty of the young is to scorn the anxiety of the old.”
From "The Golden Compass" by Philip Pullman
More than once Mr. Vance scorns elite “strivers” and purports to feel shame that he once tried hard to gain admittance to their circles.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 15, 2026
Martinique official Serge Letchimy hailed a vote that he said had come "to shatter a system that tramples on the truth, absolves the guilty, and scorns the victims".
From Barron's ● Jun. 2, 2026
And she consistently scorns consideration of congressional intent.
From Slate ● Jul. 31, 2023
Bundy said he believes his message will resonate even in the cities he scorns because the affordable housing crisis crosses party lines.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 5, 2021
I tells them how it happened in a dream, but they scorns me.
From "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison
These same dons disdained Britain’s provincial universities—known pejoratively as Redbrick—as well as academics in the U.S., whom they scorned for going about their business with “woefully unnecessary seriousness.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 30, 2026
There are few things more universally powerful than a mama’s boy scorned.
From Salon ● May 10, 2026
However, he has scorned the description of Opendoor as a meme stock, describing it instead as a “cult stock.”
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 6, 2025
He hated the government and scorned taxes, which the government noticed.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2025
Though I scorned them, sometimes hated them, there had been something between myself and men when we could fight.
From "Grendel" by John Gardner
And so it is that the U.S. is scorning an offer of near-free rein, out of annoyance at the lack of formal closing papers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 15, 2026
Onstage, Carmen was passionately scorning her erstwhile lover.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 26, 2024
By scorning this routine digital probing, they attenuate their safety and intensify their exhilaration in roughly equal measure.
From New York Times ● Jul. 12, 2022
He spent a lifetime scorning bigotry as not only immoral but irrational and un-American.
From Slate ● Feb. 16, 2022
Making all that show of humbleness and scorning him all the time!
From "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
