unmask
Americanverb (used with object)
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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)
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
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have been unmaskingperfect progressive
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has been unmaskingperfect progressive
Past
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unmaskedsimple
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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:
Susquehanna has filed a lawsuit seeking to unmask the traders who bet on a drop in Futu and Tiger Brokers stock.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 2026
Wiener said he will immediately file his updated bill in order to unmask U.S.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 9, 2026
They want DHS employees, namely ICE and Customs and Border Protection officers, to unmask and wear clear and visible identification.
From Salon ● Feb. 5, 2026
AFP found dozens of posts across social media, in which users shared AI-generated images purporting to "unmask" the agent who shot her.
From Barron's ● Jan. 30, 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
The vaccine acts like a ‘wanted poster’ which unmasks cancer cells which are adept at hiding in the body, only to resurface later.
From BBC ● May 30, 2024
“But that’s the thing with LADA: It unmasks itself over time.”
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 17, 2024
Johnson not only unmasks himself in the “Fast X” tag, he matches Momoa’s unhinged energy with a crowd-pleasing ferocity that brings the mood up from an otherwise glum cliffhanger in the film’s final moments.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 19, 2023
It nauseates the soul; and unmasks in the Satirist the rancorous and malignant hostility which assumes the disguise of a righteous indignation.
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 58, No. 359, September 1845 by Various
And while several TikTok users have come forward claiming they created it, the true author as of yet remains unmasked.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 27, 2026
Isaiah Hodgson was outed as a Border Patrol agent last June after he was filmed, unmasked, taking part in the conroversial arrest of Adrian Martinez, a U.S. citizen accused of interfering with immigration enforcement.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 6, 2026
The resulting images of the unmasked agent went viral, but identified the wrong individuals.
From Slate ● Jan. 28, 2026
A new map has unmasked the landscape beneath Antarctica's ice in unprecedented detail, something scientists say could greatly enhance our understanding of the frozen white continent.
From BBC ● Jan. 15, 2026
You feel lost, sick at heart before such unmasked hatred, not so much because it threatens you as because it shows humans in such an inhuman light.
From "Black Like Me" by John Howard Griffin
After federal immigration officers shot Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, social media users called for the unmasking of the agents responsible.
From Slate ● Jan. 28, 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
To the Crown, the speech revealed the ANC’s true and secret intent, unmasking the ANC’s public pretense of nonviolence.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
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.
