Swedish noun· top 5,000 most common

en skam

dishonour, ignominy, disgrace, shame/skamː/

Meaning

dishonour; ignominy; disgrace; shame

In Swedish: något att skämmas för, vanära

Forms

Forms of skam
Singular, indefiniteen skam
Singular, definiteskammen

skam is an en-word, so adjectives agree with it: en stor skam, den stora skammen. Check another noun

Practise skam

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Is it en skam or ett skam?

skam in a sentence

  • Skam den som ger sig!
    Shame on him who gives up!
  • dödsstraffet är en skam för ett modernt samhälle
    capital punishment is a disgrace to modern society
  • Har du ingen skam i kroppen?
    Have you no shame in you?
  • När man skäms så känner man skam
    When you are ashamed, you feel shame
  • djup skam
    deep shame
  • Hon sänkte blicken och rodnade av skam
    She lowered her eyes [gaze] and blushed with shame
  • Jag kommer aldrig över skammen
    I will never get over the shame

Expressions

  • hon kom förväntningarna på skam
    she frustrated everyone's hopes

Words built with skam

  • skamvrå corner
  • skamfläck blot

Questions

What does skam mean in English?

skam means “dishonour, ignominy”.

Is it en skam or ett skam?

It is en skam, and “the dishonour” is skammen.

Similar words

vanäravanheder

Origin

From Old Swedish skam, from Old Norse skǫmm, from Proto-Germanic *skamō, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European.

Nearby common words

skam is number 2,418 in our frequency list. These words come just before and after it.

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Sources: Folkets lexikon (CC BY-SA 2.5) and Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0), edited by Lingolib. Recording: Wikimedia Commons. Browse the dictionary