scorn
Americannoun
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scorns
plural
verb (used with object)
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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
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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
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scornernoun
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scornfulnessnoun
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self-scornnoun
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outscornverb (used with object)
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scornfuladjective
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scornfullyadverb
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scorninglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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scornsimple
-
scornssimple
-
have scornedperfect
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has scornedperfect
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am scorningprogressive
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are scorningprogressive
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is scorningprogressive
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have been scorningperfect progressive
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has been scorningperfect progressive
Past
-
scornedsimple
-
had scornedperfect
-
was scorningprogressive
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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:
Let’s hear it for well-targeted scorn: An iPad-like tablet with a zombifying effect on children is the villain of “Toy Story 5.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 18, 2026
Much of his scorn, for example, is directed at the millennial Lean In crowd that wanted women to be more like successful men—ambitious and loud.
From Slate ● Jun. 18, 2026
Rosenior drew widespread scorn when he said Chelsea's players performed a pre-match huddle before the game against Newcastle United, farcically surrounding referee Paul Tierney in the process, to "respect the ball".
From BBC ● Apr. 14, 2026
“These false statements were republished and circulated widely across social media platforms,” the lawsuit says, “exposing Plaintiff to public scorn, suspicion, and ridicule.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 14, 2026
But this scorn did not change the mind of Wang Lung.
From "The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck
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
But it also turns him into a lonely, rigidly neoclassicist oddball who scorns his professors, prefers books to his flighty peers and still can’t seem to take care of himself.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 25, 2025
And he is turning to the same people-pleasing script, seeking to mollify a faction of his conference he privately scorns.
From New York Times ● Sep. 29, 2023
I tells them how it happened in a dream, but they scorns me.
From "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison
They are, after all, world champions - and scorned ones at that.
From BBC ● Jun. 28, 2026
Their reunion is surreal because it’s predicated on their mutual ability to admit fault, something that few of us have the opportunity to do after we walk away from a loved one scorned.
From Salon ● Apr. 24, 2026
In England through much of the 20th century, conversion was tolerated—especially if you were creative—but sometimes scorned.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 3, 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
Mr. Knightley and Harriet!—It was an odd tête-à-tête; but she was glad to see it.—There had been a time when he would have scorned her as a companion, and turned from her with little ceremony.
From "Emma" by Jane Austen
When Ferrari revealed the Purosangue three years ago, many in the red brigade derided the design and, more generally, the very idea of a Ferrari sport-utility vehicle, scorning it as a sort of heresy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 18, 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
Now they had all seen—everyone in the shop—and no doubt were scorning him for a poor sort of creature, cringing and puny, unable to defend himself.
From "The Golden Goblet" by Eloise Jarvis McGraw
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.
