Sham

Sham, a word found in Arabic, English and Chinese, may refer to:

Arabic use

• Sham, or Alsahm, the Arabic name for the star Alpha Sagittae
• Sham, (Arabic: شام), al-Sham, or Bilad al-Sham, endonym of the region bordering the eastern Mediterranean Sea, usually known as the Levant or Greater Syria, comprising modern Syria, Lebanon, Israel, the Palestinian Territories and Jordan
  • ash-Shām, or Sham (الشام), another name for Damascus, the largest city in the region
• Sham el-Nessim, Egyptian holiday marking the beginning of spring
• Jund al-Sham, terrorist group based in Afghanistan

English use

• Sham 69, English punk band
• Sam the Sham, stage name of US rock singer Domingo “Sam” Samudio
• Sham, a name for the cover of a pillow
• Sham-operated group, a control group in laboratory experiments involving surgical procedures
• Sham election, another name for a Show election
• Sham marriage, a marriage entered into with intent to deceive
• Sham surgery, surgery omitting the therapeutic component
• Sham peer review, a fraudulent or malicious form of peer review
• Sham, a beer glass that is twice as tall as it is wide, normaly wider at the top, and having a half inch thick glass base.

Chinese use

• Kohn–Sham equations, named after Walter Kohn and Lu Jeu Sham
• Sham Chun River, on the border of Hong Kong and mainland China
• Sham Shui Po District, a district of Hong Kong
• Sham Kwok Fai, association football player from Hong Kong

Other uses

• Sham (horse), American Thoroughbred horse born in 1970 who won multiple graded stakes races (name origin unknown)
  • Sham Stakes, a race named for the horse
• Sham, a character in the X-Men 2099 comic book series (name origin unknown)
• The acronym SHAM, which is shorthand for Southern Hemisphere Annular Mode, a climate pattern

See also

• hoax, or fraud, synonyms for the English word sham
• Shams