charade
Americannoun
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(used with a singular verb) charades, a game in which the players are typically divided into two teams, members of which take turns at acting out in pantomime a word, phrase, title, etc., which the members of their own team must guess.
-
a word or phrase acted out in this game.
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a blatant pretense or deception, especially something so full of pretense as to be a travesty.
noun
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an episode or act in the game of charades
-
an absurd act; travesty
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of charade
1770–80; < French < Provençal charrad ( o ) entertainment, equivalent to charr ( á ) to chat, chatter (from imitative root) + -ado -ade 1
Explanation
A charade is something done just for show. Your devotion to vegetarianism would be a charade if you actually ate cheeseburgers when no one was looking. When you want things to appear different than they really are, you might be tempted to put on a charade, like a charade of happiness when you are really feeling down. Charade is also the name for a silently-acted clue in the game called Charades — which originally wasn't silent. It used indirect descriptions of the words.
Vocabulary lists containing charade
"The Stolen Party"
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Glitch
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The Tower of Nero
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The charade will help Stewart close a business deal and make him the favored Whitfield to take over the family’s real-estate empire.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
Why force myself to go through with this charade again?
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 27, 2025
Having been on “The Apprentice,” Jillette knows a thing or two about deception outside of performing magic — specifically the charade of a competition television show.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 15, 2025
The decision on how to proceed now rests with Macron, who must surely be asking himself how long this political charade can be allowed to go on.
From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2025
He’s officially dropped the Boy21 charade for good, and has gone back to being Russ Allen, superstar basketball player.
From "Boy21" by Matthew Quick
In playing charades with our friends, for example, we aim to prevail, but only in fun.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 15, 2026
"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.
From BBC ● Aug. 3, 2025
Hitler ran a regime that engaged in elaborate charades to bamboozle sympathetic and influential foreigners about the nature of the Nazi state.
From Salon ● Sep. 21, 2024
It originated from these epic charades games we would play at her house with her kids and friends.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 23, 2023
It must have been half past five in the morning, well after several delirious games of cards and charades that had been brought on by too much candy and too little sleep.
From "The Darkest Minds" by Alexandra Bracken
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
