charades

/ ʃəˈrɑːdz /

noun

1. (functioning as singular) a parlour game in which one team acts out each syllable of a word, the other team having to guess the word

Word History and Origins

Origin of charades¹

C18: from French charade entertainment, from Provençal charrado chat, from charra chatter, of imitative origin

Example Sentences

"We divided attendees into groom and bride's teams and organised games like charades and guessing who the relative is from a stereotype," said CEO Anurag Pandey.

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He read out the rules for what was essentially an arena-scale game of charades between him and the audience, in which his number of wins determined which costume he donned for the next act.

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Writer and performer Sandra Tsing Loh had the honors Sunday, and she gamely followed the script’s instructions as though presiding over an evening of charades that an oracle had dreamed up in advance.

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David Patrick Kelly as King Sextimus the Silent spends much of his stage time engaged in a series of charades.

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Hitler ran a regime that engaged in elaborate charades to bamboozle sympathetic and influential foreigners about the nature of the Nazi state.

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