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A sentence:

Any journalist who takes money should be ashamed and shamed.

What is the difference between ashamed and shamed?

Does the sentence

Any journalist who takes money should be ashamed and shamed.

contain more info than the sentence

Any journalist who takes money should be ashamed.

or

Any journalist who takes money should shamed.

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3
  • 1
    correction - the last sentence is missing a "be" - it should be, "Any journalist who takes money should be shamed."
    – Mixolydian
    Commented Mar 4, 2019 at 4:11
  • 2
    Didn't you look up the words in a dictionary?
    – Kat
    Commented Mar 4, 2019 at 22:46
  • 1
    @Kat - I agree. Anyone posting a question like this one without consulting a dictionary should feel ashamed.
    – J.R. ♦
    Commented Mar 5, 2019 at 10:59

5 Answers 5

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10

Shamed is what one does to you.

Ashamed is about how you feel about yourself.

Shamed could be punitive, ashamed shows remorse sometimes repentance.

If a person has no shame, then others might view their behavior or conduct as shameful and thus shame them, but the individual who has no shame is not (yet) ashamed of anything they have done or are doing.

Below is paraphrased from Webster's fourth edition

To shame is to dishonor, or disrespect

Shamed is when others treat with dishonor and disrespect due to some action or trait of the one being shamed.

Ashamed is when you are embarrassed by these same traits - or when you fear shame/dishonor/loss of respect even before said actions are publicly known

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36

Yes, these are two different words, and using both is not redundant.

to be ashamed means to feel embarrassed or guilty, as in:

I am ashamed that I took money for my work.

to shame means to publicly humiliate someone, i.e. to make them feel embarrassed or guilty, as in:

That journalist was shamed by her online readers for taking money.

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  • 29
    Simply put: "I shamed him, because I wanted him to feel ashamed"
    – Flater
    Commented Mar 4, 2019 at 11:28
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"Ashamed" is an adjective meaning "feeling shame", that is, to feel that they have done something wrong. "Shamed" is the past participle of the verb "shame". "To shame" can either mean to cause someone to be ashamed, or to expose someone to censure, or both. In the first sense, it is redundant, so it is reasonable to infer that the second meaning is intended: the person should personally feel that they have done something wrong (ashamed), and other people should feel that this person has done something wrong (shamed).

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2

The difference is that "ashamed" describes a person who is shamed or shameful, and "shamed" describes the condition of being the object of someone else's shame.

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1

Ashamed is always an adjective.

He is ashamed.

Shamed can be a past-tense verb.

She was shamed and disgraced.

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