A sham is something fake or phony that's designed to fool people. When something is a sham, it looks real on the surface but lacks genuine substance underneath. A sham election might go through the motions of voting but the results are rigged beforehand. A sham trial looks like justice but the verdict was decided before any evidence was heard.

The word carries a sense of deliberate deception. If someone sets up a sham business, they're creating something that appears legitimate to trick customers or investors. Think of a movie set with building facades: they look like real storefronts from the street, but they're just hollow fronts propped up with boards.

You might also encounter sham as an adjective, like sham feelings (emotions someone pretends to have but doesn't really feel). The word can also be a verb: to sham means to fake or pretend, like shamming illness to avoid a difficult situation.

When you call something a sham, you're exposing it as fraudulent. You're pointing out that despite appearances, there's no real substance behind the show.