These words all refer to conduct or a condition that violates the prevailing standards of probity or morality. Shameful and disgraceful express strong disapproval and often shock at someone else’s transgressions. Both terms are commonly used for emphasis to reveal profound indignation on the part of the speaker or writer, and are more meaningful in suggesting attitude than in objectively describing shocking situations: a disgraceful exhibition of poor sportsmanship; a shameful display of ingratitude. Strictly speaking, a shameful act would bring shame or obloquy upon the doer and a disgraceful act would bring disgrace; but this distinction is not commonly observed, and all that can be said is that disgraceful usually indicates a greater degree of indignation than shameful . Shameful may also suggest a note of sadness rather than contempt, as at an unfortunate condition: It was shameful how badly out of shape the former athlete allowed himself to become. Disgraceful would be too strong in this context: it is limited more usually to acts that are felt to be outrageous: disgraceful misuse of company funds.

Dishonourable , though also revealing a highly critical attitude, has more objective relevance than either shameful or disgraceful , and retains more of its original sense of imputing dishonour. It is a formal word of high seriousness and would not, as the other words here considered, ever be applied to comparatively trivial circumstances involving manners or the like. Dishonourable applies to one’s character and to one’s good name.

• It was dishonourable of him take credit for having written a book he had not written; The soldier was convicted of wilful desertion and was given a dishonourable discharge from the army.

Ignominious and scandalous are both closely related to shameful. Ignominious suggests behaviour that subjects one to humiliation; scandalous suggests sensational actions that flagrantly violate accepted standards of morality and hence stimulates reactions of intense revulsion or contempt.

• She had a series of scandalous affairs that shocked the community; The police sergeant’s career came to an ignominious end when he was dismissed from the force for frequent drunkenness on duty.

Ignominious is now widely used to refer to anything that diminishes one’s self-respect: He suffered through an ignominious silence when asked to explain his absence.