Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Games A game in which words or phrases are represented in pantomime, sometimes syllable by syllable, until they are guessed by the other players.
- n. Games An episode in this game or a word or phrase so represented.
- n. A readily perceived pretense; a travesty: went through the charade of a public apology.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An enigma whose solution is a word of two or more syllables, each of which is separately significant in sound, and which, as well as the whole word, must be discovered from a dialogue or description in which it is used, or from dramatic representation.
Wiktionary
- n. Something apparently real but based on pretence/pretense.
- n. A party game in which players mime a word or phrase that the other players must try to guess.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A verbal or acted enigma based upon a word which has two or more significant syllables or parts, each of which, as well as the word itself, is to be guessed from the descriptions or representations.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a word acted out in an episode of the game of charades
- n. a composition that imitates or misrepresents somebody's style, usually in a humorous way
Etymologies
- French, probably from Provençal charrado, chat, from charra, to chat, chatter, perhaps from Italian ciarlare.
Examples
“Taylor boycotted the opening day of the trial, which he called a charade in a letter read by his defense attorney.”
“Although MEND said it did not take part in the amnesty - which it described as charade - most of its top commanders laid down arms.”
“Just pointing out again that your charade is sort of bizarre and abnormal as far as normal adult behavior goes …”
“The true charade is holding people in detention for years with no indictment and no trial.”
“To me this whole debacle would be solved by having fixed term parliaments, because this whole 'will he, wont he' charade is tiresome.”
“The real point of this charade is to allow allow the left and the government approved media to put the Bush administration on trial.”
“Bozo The Neoclown says: the whole “sceond amendment rights” charade is the oldest “red meat” trick of cancervatards. ranks right up there with abortion in terms of being a falshpoint issue. and these ignorant maroons fall for it every freakin time.”
Think Progress » Gun Advocates Plan DC March On 15th Anniversary Of Oklahoma City Bombing
“Their silly charade is over after the disastrous Teabagging festival, which showed that they are incapable of being a viable organization, even with the massive backing of the financial and big oil corporations.”
“I hope you know that many of us recognize that this little charade is simply subconscious racism.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » Radio Debate on the Constitutionality of the Health Care Bill
“NO WAY NO HOW ........ as soon as this charade is over and the boys are done pouncing on Hillary I am changing my registration to INDEPENDENT.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘charade’.
-
®emovies
Movies or TV shows where the titles are also common words, generally one-word titles.
lost, alien, bug, elephant, siege, gladiator, flock, captivity, piano, roots, freaks, moonstruck and 269 more...
-
Words that are also movies
Unabashedly stolen from a comment made by courier12.
vertigo, serendipity, casablanca, psycho, jaws, fantasia, stagecoach, network, rocky, giant, platoon, unforgiven and 285 more...
-
Brand Theft Auto
A marque list for cars--models or companies who've used common words as their name.
explorer, navigator, frontier, mustang, quest, cougar, sidekick, legend, legacy, ranger, voyager, civic and 266 more...
-
kahleigh's list
therapeutic, charade, chalice, rendezvous, amarulence, bewitched, transcendence, passe, cul-de-sac, boulevard, bouquet, forlorn and 18 more...
-
Hiding in plain sight
anticryptic, camouflage, chameleon, xenomorphic, obfusc, stegnographic, stealth, dissemble, dissimulate, mask, masquerade, screen and 26 more...
oroboros In wordplay, the concatenation of words to form another word: e.g., the & rein--> therein.
--Chris Cole, Wordplay May 22, 2008