unmask
Americanverb (used with object)
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unmasks,
present (3rd person singular)
-
unmasked,
past participle, past
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unmasking
present participle
-
to strip a mask or disguise from.
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to reveal the true character of; disclose; expose.
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Military. to reveal the presence of (guns) by firing.
verb (used without object)
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unmasks,
present (3rd person singular)
-
unmasked,
past participle, past
-
unmasking
present participle
verb
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to remove (the mask or disguise) from (someone or oneself)
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to appear or cause to appear in true character
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(tr) military to make evident the presence of (weapons), either by firing or by the removal of camouflage, etc
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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unmasksimple
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unmaskssimple
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have unmaskedperfect
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has unmaskedperfect
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am unmaskingprogressive
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are unmaskingprogressive
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is unmaskingprogressive
-
have been unmaskingperfect progressive
-
has been unmaskingperfect progressive
Past
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unmaskedsimple
-
had unmaskedperfect
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was unmaskingprogressive
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were unmaskingprogressive
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had been unmaskingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of unmask
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:
In 2022, a former Twitter worker, Ahmad Abouammo, was found guilty of spying for Saudi officials keen to unmask critics on the platform.
From Barron's ● Oct. 13, 2026
The Times reporting enraged Trump, and the administration tried to unmask the paper’s sources before ultimately backing down.
From Slate ● Aug. 11, 2026
She sat down with the BBC's Women's Football Weekly podcast and addressed media in a press conference that helped unmask the global superstar.
From BBC ● Aug. 9, 2026
The Wall Street Journal identified 10 people—nine Americans and one Canadian—who pushed back against DHS’s attempts to unmask them through the two types of subpoenas.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026
Whoever did this had wanted only to unmask me without my permission, to humiliate me by intentionally undermining a decision I’d made to keep some parts of me for just myself.
From "A Very Large Expanse of Sea" by Tahereh Mafi
Meghan Kobza’s “The Masquerade” unmasks the festivities of 18th-century London, where the commercial “middling sort” acquired the numbers and money to emulate the private entertainments of kings and aristocrats.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 2026
“But that’s the thing with LADA: It unmasks itself over time.”
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 17, 2024
The BBC unmasks, for the first time, how the late Nigerian televangelist TB Joshua faked the miracles that drew millions of people to his church.
From BBC ● Jan. 13, 2024
The song even unmasks the grim realities of undergoing the procedure.
From Salon ● Jul. 16, 2022
When the youth unmasks Dietrich recognizes in his deliverer Herrat his sweet nurse, whose likeness to his own dead wife Gotlinde has moved him from the first.
From The Standard Operaglass Detailed Plots of One Hundred and Fifty-one Celebrated Operas by Charles Annesley
A morally questionable reporter-turned TV host is the protagonist of Lance Oppenheim's "Primetime", based on the real-life NBC television show "To Catch a Predator" that unmasked paedophiles after luring them to staged meetings with minors.
From Barron's ● Sep. 6, 2026
The fraud was unmasked April 27 after Bowker heard from town officials following her payment inquiries.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
A leading people smuggler, whose network is believed to be responsible for the majority of illegal cross-Channel journeys in recent years, has been unmasked by a BBC investigation.
From BBC ● May 12, 2026
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and other federal agents unmasked.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 20, 2026
And the villains who manipulated the schools and the streets would be unmasked.
From "Between the World and Me" by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Even before Cerimedo’s arrest, Latin American journalists had begun unmasking Cerimedo as a prodigious purveyor of fake news — about himself.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 13, 2026
To disrupt that message, West suggests unmasking the obvious fact that the content creators themselves are con artists selling a sham product.
From Salon ● Nov. 21, 2025
“Mask & Bone” by Jamesie Fournier is a slightly overwritten but otherwise masterly unmasking of ordinary family life that reveals ancient secrets and generational trauma of the supernatural kind.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 17, 2025
I was unmasking on set and to then portray that on camera was very new to me and difficult to navigate at times.
From BBC ● May 30, 2024
Though he still chased bandits on horseback, the work was generally less dangerous; in many cases, it involved unmasking individuals who had filed false claims for reimbursements.
From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
