ashamed
adjective
Simple meaning
Feeling shame or guilt or embarrassment or remorse.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
uhshaymdSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
əˈʃeɪmd
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Feeling shame or guilt or embarrassment or remorse
“Are you ashamed for having lied?”
(chiefly of someone in trouble and undergoing punishment for doing something wrong) Feeling shame or guilt.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: Feeling shame or guilt or embarrassment or remorse
Used this way, ashamed is a common word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“Are you ashamed for having lied?”
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Usage note
It most often appears in the pattern “ashamed for …”, which is worth copying when you use it.
Natural pattern: ashamed for …
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use ashamed
- “Are you ashamed for having lied?”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.