Scorn is a feeling of intense contempt or disgust, often mixed with anger, toward something or someone you consider completely worthless or beneath you. When you feel scorn, you look down on it with a cold, harsh judgment that dismisses its value entirely.

Picture a skilled chess player watching someone make the most basic, foolish mistake possible. The look of dismissive disgust on their face? That's scorn. Or imagine someone offering a scientist a magic crystal that supposedly cures diseases. The scientist's response might be scornful because they see the claim as ridiculous and insulting to real medicine.

You can scorn something as a verb (meaning to reject it with contempt) or feel scorn as a noun (the emotion itself). A character in a story might scorn help from their rival, refusing it with icy disdain. Someone might pour scorn on an idea they think is stupid or harmful.

Scorn is harsher than simple disagreement or dislike. It carries a sense of superiority and dismissiveness. When you treat someone with scorn, you're acting like they and their ideas don't deserve serious consideration, declaring them beneath notice or response. That makes scorn a powerful but dangerous emotion, one that can hurt relationships and close your mind to learning.