Meanings
plural scams
- A fraudulent or dishonest deal. A swindle.
That marketing scheme looks like a scam to me.
1 more example
a scam catches most people with any sense of compassion
Synonyms: deception, imposition, hype, deceit, dupery, fiddle, fetch, hocus-pocus
- Something that is promoted using scams.
That new diet burger is a scam.
present singular third person scams · participle present scamming · participle past scammed · past scammed
- slangTo seek out a partner for casual sex; to hit on.
His friend nudged me. "It's true. JJ only scams black ladies." / "You don't say?" / "J-boy scammed a real live Miss Black Universe once. Met her in a disco down in Honduras. Wearing her title. Since then he's been obsessed."
2005, Robert Antoni, Carnival, New York, N.Y.: Black Cat, →ISBN, page 54
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA fraudulent or dishonest deal. A swindle.
verbTo defraud or embezzle.
More synonyms by meaning
verbdeprive of by deceit
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Irishcam“crooked”
- Englishscam
US American carnival slang of uncertain origin. Possibly from scamp (“swindler, cheater”) or Irish cam (“crooked”). Also possibly from Danish skam; if so, it would be a doublet of shame and sham. First use appears c. 1963 in the periodical Time. The word became common use among the US drug culture when in early 1980, after Operation ABSCAM, an FBI sting operation directed at public officials, became public.
More words from Irish
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Arabic اِحْتِيَال, اِحْتَالَ
- اِحْتِيَال (iḥtiyāl)fraudulent deal
- اِحْتَالَ (iḥtāla)to defraud or embezzle
Bengali ছলনা
- ছলনা (cholna)fraudulent deal
Bulgarian нечестна сделка, изма́ма
- нечестна сделка (nečestna sdelka)fraudulent deal
- изма́ма (izmáma)fraudulent deal
- мамя (mamja)to defraud or embezzle
Catalan estafa, enredada
- estafafraudulent deal
- enredadafraudulent deal
- tripijocfraudulent deal
- estafarto defraud or embezzle
Chinese Mandarin 詭計 /诡计, 騙局 /骗局
- 詭計 /诡计 (guǐjì)fraudulent deal
- 騙局 /骗局 (piànjú)fraudulent deal
- 欺詐 /欺诈 (qīzhà)to defraud or embezzle
- 騙局 /骗局 (piànjú)to defraud or embezzle
- 詐騙 /诈骗 (zhàpiàn)to defraud or embezzle
Czech podvod
- podvodfraudulent deal
Danish bedrageri
- bedragerifraudulent deal
Dutch oplichting, deceptie
- oplichtingfraudulent deal
- deceptiefraudulent deal
- bedrogfraudulent deal
- misleidingfraudulent deal
- oplichtento defraud or embezzle
Esperanto trompo, friponaĵo
- trompofraudulent deal
- friponaĵofraudulent deal
- prifriponito defraud or embezzle
Finnish huijaus, vedätys
- huijausfraudulent deal
- vedätysfraudulent deal
- vilunkifraudulent deal
- vedättääto defraud or embezzle
- huijatato defraud or embezzle
French entourloupe, arnaque
- entourloupefraudulent deal
- arnaquefraudulent deal
- escroqueriefraudulent deal
- trucagefraudulent deal
- tour de passe-passefraudulent deal
- tripotagefraudulent deal
- entourlouperto defraud or embezzle
- arnaquerto defraud or embezzle
German Betrug, Beschiss
- Betrugfraudulent deal
- Beschissfraudulent deal
- Gaunereifraudulent deal
- Schwindelfraudulent deal
- Trickdiebstahlfraudulent deal
- Trickbetrugfraudulent deal
- betrügento defraud or embezzle
Greek απάτη, κομπίνα
- απάτη (apáti)fraudulent deal
- κομπίνα (kompína)fraudulent deal
Hebrew תרגיל עוקץ, הונאה
- תרגיל עוקץfraudulent deal
- הונאה (honaá)fraudulent deal
- תרמית (tarmít)fraudulent deal
- הונה (honá)to defraud or embezzle
- רימה (rimá)to defraud or embezzle
Indonesian scam
- scamfraudulent deal
Italian scam, fregatura
- scamfraudulent deal
- fregaturafraudulent deal
- truffafraudulent deal
- imbrogliofraudulent deal
- raggirofraudulent deal
- inciuciofraudulent deal
- trescafraudulent deal
- intrallazzofraudulent deal
- macchinazionefraudulent deal
- pastettafraudulent deal
- bidonefraudulent deal
- bidonatafraudulent deal
- truffareto defraud or embezzle
- imbrogliareto defraud or embezzle
- raggirareto defraud or embezzle
- fregareto defraud or embezzle
Japanese 詐欺
- 詐欺 (sagi)fraudulent deal
Norwegian Bokmål bedrageri
- bedragerifraudulent deal
Polish oszustwo, przekręt
- oszustwofraudulent deal
- przekrętfraudulent deal
- szwindelfraudulent deal
Portuguese golpe, calote
- golpefraudulent deal
- calotefraudulent deal
- embrulhadafraudulent deal
- fraudefraudulent deal
- falcatruafraudulent deal
- logrofraudulent deal
- aplicar um golpeto defraud or embezzle
- lograrto defraud or embezzle
Punjabi ਸਕੈਮ
- ਸਕੈਮ (sakaim)fraudulent deal
Russian афе́ра, жу́льничество
- афе́ра (aféra)fraudulent deal
- жу́льничество (žúlʹničestvo)fraudulent deal
- моше́нничество (mošénničestvo)fraudulent deal
- обма́н (obmán)fraudulent deal
- надува́тельство (naduvátelʹstvo)fraudulent deal
- обма́нывать (obmányvatʹ)to defraud or embezzle
- кида́ть (kidátʹ)to defraud or embezzle
Spanish estafa, timo
- estafafraudulent deal
- timofraudulent deal
- chanchullofraudulent deal
- petardofraudulent deal
- pufofraudulent deal
- estafarto defraud or embezzle
- timarto defraud or embezzle
- sisarto defraud or embezzle
- tirar perro muertoto defraud or embezzle
- sonsaquearto defraud or embezzle
Swedish lurendrejeri, bedrägeri
- lurendrejerifraudulent deal
- bedrägerifraudulent deal
- lurato defraud or embezzle
- scamato defraud or embezzle
Turkish dolandırma, dolandırıcılık
- dolandırmafraudulent deal
- dolandırıcılıkfraudulent deal
- dolandırmakto defraud or embezzle
Vietnamese trò lừa đảo, lừa đảo
- trò lừa đảofraudulent deal
- lừa đảoto defraud or embezzle
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with scam
All rhymes →Anagrams
Cite this entry
scam. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/scam
“scam.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/scam. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “scam,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/scam.
Source: scam on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.