Scham
German, noun
Scham is spelled S-C-H-A-M (5 letters) and appears 5.0 times per million words in written German, the 12,256th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Scham is a German feminine noun meaning “shame (uncomfortable feeling at one's own impropriety or at the exposure of something private; but not in the sense of disgrace or being…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). On this page, schäm is a different word: “singular imperative of schämen”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “angstbesetztes Empfinden, das meist durch eigenes und von anderen beobachtbares Fehlverhalten ausgelöst wird…”.
What does Scham mean in English?
noun
- 1
feminineshame (uncomfortable feeling at one's own impropriety or at the exposure of something private; but not in the sense of disgrace or being dishonored, for which Schande)
- 2
femininebashfulness, prudishness, shamefacedness
- 3
datedfemininepubic region including the genitals
Schamhaar
- 4
datedfemininevulva
verb
- 1
singular imperative of schämen
- 2
colloquialfirst-person singular present of schämen
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
noun: 1. angstbesetztes Empfinden, das meist durch eigenes und von anderen beobachtbares Fehlverhalten ausgelöst wird, durch das man deren Achtung zu verlieren droht 2. die Gegend der Geschlechtsteile beim Menschen
The definition in the German Wiktionary, in German.
Source: German Wiktionary, dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of Scham
- Schaam alternative obsolete
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to Scham
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is Scham in German?
Scham appears 5.0 times per million words in written German.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).