charade
Plural: charades
Noun
- An absurd pretense or a game where words are pantomimed.
- a composition that imitates or misrepresents somebody's style, usually in a humorous way
- a word acted out in an episode of the game of charades
- A genre of riddles where the clues to the answer are descriptions or puns on its syllables, with a final clue to the whole.
- A single round of the game charades, an acted form of the earlier riddles.
- A play resembling the game charades, particularly due to poor acting.
- A deception or pretense, originally an absurdly obvious one but now in general use.
- A form of wordplay where several words are placed together to form a new word or part thereof.
Verb
- To act out a charade (of); to gesture; to pretend.
Examples
- His feigned confidence was a mere CHARADE to conceal his desperate tile rack.
- This whole charade is absurd.
Origin / Etymology
From French charade, charrade (“prattle, idle conversation; a kind of riddle”), probably from Occitan charrada (“conversation; chatter”), from charrar (“to chat; to chatter”) + -ada. As a round of the game, originally a clipping of acting charade but now usually understood and formed as a back-formation from charades.
Synonyms
burlesque, lampoon, mockery, parody, pasquinade, put-on, sendup, spoof, takeoff, travesty, acted charade, dumb charade, farce, sham
Scrabble Score: 13
charade: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordcharade: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
charade: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary