scandal

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scandal^¹

/ˈskændəl/ UK
[ˈskændəl] ~ [ˈskændl̩] UK
/ˈskandəl/ British, Northern England, Scotland
[ˈskandəl] ~ [ˈskandl̩] ~ [ˈskän-] British, Northern England, Scotland
/ˈskændəl/
[ˈskeə̯ndəl] ~ [ˈskeə̯ndl̩] ~ [ˈskɛə̯n-]
/ˈskæːndəl/ Australia
[ˈskæːndəl] ~ [ˈskæːndl̩] ~(/æ/ raising)[ˈskɛːn-] ~ [ˈskeːn-] Australia
/ˈskɛndəl/ New Zealand
[ˈskɛndəl] ~ [ˈskɛndl̩] New Zealand

Rhymes with -ændəl

Where it comes from

From Middle French scandale (“indignation caused by misconduct or defamatory speech”), from Ecclesiastical Latin scandalum (“that on which one trips, cause of offense”, literally “stumbling block”), from Ancient Greek σκάνδαλον (skándalon, “a trap laid for an enemy, a cause of moral stumbling”), from Proto-Indo-European *skand- (“to jump”). Cognate with Latin scandō (“to climb”). First attested from Old Northern French escandle, but the modern word is a reborrowing. Doublet, via Old French esclandre, of slander.

Sense evolution from "cause of stumbling, that which causes one to sin, stumbling block" to "discredit to reputation, that which brings shame, thing of disgrace" is possibly due to early influence from other similar sounding words for infamy and disgrace (compare Old English scand (“ignominity, scandal, disgraceful thing”), Old High German scanda (“ignominy, disgrace”), Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌰𐌽𐌳𐌰 (skanda, “shame, disgrace”)). See shand, shend, shonda.

noun scandals

countable, uncountable An incident or event that disgraces or damages the reputation of the persons or organization involved. Their affair was reported as a scandal by most tabloids.
countable, uncountable Damage to one's reputation. The incident brought considerable scandal to his family.
countable, uncountable Widespread moral outrage, indignation, as over an offence to decency. When their behaviour was made public it caused a great scandal.
countable, uncountable A word or deed, lacking in rectitude in some manner, which is an occasion of the spiritual ruin of another.
countable, uncountable Defamatory talk; gossip, slander. According to village scandal, they weren't even married.
Philippines, colloquial, countable, uncountable amateur or homemade pornography
Philippines, colloquial, countable, informal, uncountable commotion.

verb scandals · scandaling · scandalling · scandaled · scandalled

obsolete To defame; to slander. I do fawn on men and hug them hard And after scandal them.
Similar: denigrate, diss, traduce, assassinate, asperse, backbite, badmouth, befoul, belibel, besmirch, besmear, bewray
obsolete To scandalize; to offend. A propensity to scandal may partly proceed from an inability to distinguish the proper objects of censure
Similar: affront, insult, misbid, abuse, burn, carry, cut down, disrespect, dis, diss, give stick, heckle

SCANDAL^²

phrase

abbreviation, acronym Acronym of speciated by cancer development animals

noun SCANDALs

abbreviation, ellipsis Ellipsis of SCANDAL taxon (“a species or taxon which speciated due to the SCANDAL process”).
abbreviation, ellipsis Ellipsis of SCANDAL process (“the mechanism for speciation through cancer cells becoming independent of the originating creature, and living on”).

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: outrage, dirt, malicious gossip, scandalous, infamy, offense, outrageous, shameful, disgrace, ignominy, shame, corruption, embarrassment, trouble, nuisance, obscenity

Translations

Every language

noun incident that brings disgrace

Español	escándalo
한국어	불상사 bulsangsa, 스캔들 seukaendeul
日本語	不祥事 fushōji, スキャンダル sukyandaru
中文	醜事 /丑事 chǒushì, 醜聞 /丑闻 chǒuwén
हिन्दी	काण्ड kāṇḍ, घोटाला ghoṭālā
Kiswahili	kashfa
Português	escândalo
Français	scandale, esclandre
Deutsch	Skandal
Italiano	scandalo
Ελληνικά	σκάνδαλο skándalo
Română	scandal
Русский	сканда́л skandál
Tiếng Việt	vụ bê bối, vụ tai tiếng
العربية	فَضِيحَة faḍīḥa
עברית	שערורייה, שַׁעֲרוּרִיָּה shaaruriyá

noun damage to one's reputation

Ελληνικά	σκάνδαλο skándalo
Русский	сканда́л skandál

noun widespread moral outrage

Ελληνικά	σκάνδαλο skándalo
Русский	сканда́л skandál

noun defamatory talk

Русский	злосло́вие zloslóvije, спле́тни splétni

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Cite this

MLA

"scandal." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/scandal. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

scandal. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/scandal

Chicago

"scandal." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/scandal.

BibTeX

@misc{scandal_2026,
  title = {scandal},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/scandal},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}