masquerade
Syllables: mas·que·rade/ˌmæskəˈɹeɪd//ˌmæskəˈɹeɪd/
masquerade noun: an assembly or party of people wearing (usually elaborate or fanciful) masks and costumes, and amusing themselves with dancing, conversation, or other diversions.
Noun
masquerade (plural masquerades)
- An assembly or party of people wearing (usually elaborate or fanciful) masks and costumes, and amusing themselves with dancing, conversation, or other diversions.
- Near-synonym: costume party
- I was invited to the masquerade at their home.
- Synonyms:
- masque, costume party
- The act of wearing a mask or dressing up in a costume for, or as if for, a masquerade ball.
- An act of living under false pretenses; a concealment of something by a false or unreal show; a disguise, a pretence; also, a pretentious display.
- Verres in the youth of Cicero, Catiline and Clodius in his middle age, Mark Antony in his old age, have all been left to operate on the modern reader's feelings precisely through that masquerade of misrepresentation which invariably accompanied the political eloquence of Rome.1842 July, [Thomas de Quincey], “Cicero”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume LII, number CCCXXI, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood & Sons, […], →OCLC, page 2, column 1
- An assembly of varied, often fanciful, things.
- A cosplay event at which costumed attendees perform skits.
- A dramatic performance by actors in masks; a mask or masque.
- A Spanish entertainment or military exercise in which squadrons of horses charge at each other, the riders fighting with bucklers and canes.
Verb
masquerade (third-person singular simple present masquerades, present participle masquerading, simple past and past participle masqueraded)
- To take part in a masquerade; to assemble in masks and costumes; (loosely) to wear a disguise.
- I’m going to masquerade as an old-fashioned pilot. What are you going to dress up as?
- There was a Freak took an Aſs in the Head, to Scoure abroad on the Ramble; and away he goes into the Woods, Maſquerading up and down in a Lyon's Skin.1692, Roger L’Estrange, “[The Fables of Anianus, &c.] Fab[le] CCXXIV. An Ass in a Lyon’s Skin.”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC, page...
- To pass oneself off as a different person or a person with qualities that one does not possess; also, to make a pretentious show of being what one is not.
- He masqueraded as my friend until the truth finally came out.
- Ethan Hunt, the human missile of American intelligence that Tom Cruise has been popping back in to play for more than 20 years now, is masquerading as a mysterious terrorist, the perfectly named John Lark, to buy back some plutonium he’s lost to a cabal of doomsday extremists.2018 July 25, A. A. Dowd, “Fallout may be the Most Breathlessly Intense Mission: Impossible Adventure Yet”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 31 Jul 2018
- To appear as something else.
- A Foundation outpost masquerading as an abandoned home has been established within the vicinity of SCP-2003.2025 August 5, PlaguePJP, J Dune, “SCP-2003”, in SCP Wiki, archived from the original on 29 Jul 2026
- To conceal (someone) with, or as if with, a mask; to disguise.
masquerade meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali
masquerade in Hindi
- act of living under false pretenses; concealment of something by a false or unreal show — see also disguise, pretence
- छद्मवेश chadmaveś, छद्म chadma
masquerade in Marathi
- मास्करेड
masquerade in Urdu
- بہروپ, سوانگ میلہ
masquerade in Bengali
- মাস্কারেড
More languagesFewer languages
- masquerade in Telugu
- మాస్క్వెరేడ్
- masquerade in Malayalam
- വേഷപ്രച്ഛന്നാഭിനയം
- masquerade in Kannada
- ಛದ್ಮವೇಷ, ಮಾರುವೇಷ, ಸೋಗು, ವೇಷಹಾಕಿಕೊಂಡು ಕಾಣಿಸಿಕೊ
- masquerade in Gujarati
- માસ્કરેડ
- masquerade in Odia
- ମାସ୍କେରେଡ୍
- masquerade in Nepali
- मास्करेड, मास्केरेड, मास्करेडि
- masquerade in Arabic
- تَنَكَّرَ tanakkara
- masquerade in Indonesian
- menyamar
- masquerade in Persian
- بالماسکه bâlmâske
Examples of masquerade in a sentence
- Eventually the masquerade rises and is revealed to the initiatee as being a person.
- “People masquerade as holding progressive political views to ensnare potential partners,” Smith told Vice.
- Another potential siting of disability masquerade connecting the superhero and 'supercrip' is M.
Synonyms of masquerade
Forms of masquerade
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | masquerades |
| alternative form | mascarade |
| alternative form | maskerade |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | masquerades |
| present participle | masquerading |
| past participle | masqueraded |
| past | masqueraded |
Origin of masquerade
The noun is borrowed from Middle French mascarade, masquarade, masquerade (modern French mascarade (“masquerade, masque; farce”)), and its etymon Italian mascherata (“masquerade”), from maschera (“mask”) + -ata. Maschera is derived from Medieval Latin masca (“mask”): see further there. The English word is cognate with Late Latin masquarata, Portuguese mascarada, Spanish mascarada. The verb is derived from the noun.
Words formed from masquerade
Words that rhyme with masquerade
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- blockade
- cade
- fade
- glade
- raid
- upbraid
- abrade
- crusade
- esplanade
- invade
- lade
- unlaid
- upgrade
- brigade
- brocade
- cavalcade
- colonnade
- displayed
- glissade
- grenade
- paid
- palisade
- unlade
- afraid
- ambuscade
- arcade
- corrade
- degrade
- enfilade
- evade
- jade
- lemonade
- made
- maid
- persuade
- pomade
- spade
- unmade
- aide
- cannonade
- carbonade
- carronade
- clade
- cockade
- Dade
- decayed
- dragonnade
- embayed
Questions about masquerade
- What does masquerade mean?
- Masquerade means an assembly or party of people wearing (usually elaborate or fanciful) masks and costumes, and amusing themselves with dancing, conversation, or other diversions.
- What is masquerade in Hindi?
- Masquerade in Hindi is छद्मवेश (chadmaveś), छद्म (chadma). See Masquerade meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is masquerade?
- Masquerade can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce masquerade?
- Masquerade is pronounced /ˌmæskəˈɹeɪd/ (UK).
- What is the plural of masquerade?
- The plural of masquerade is masquerades.
Words near masquerade in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: masquerade (page history and authors); masquerade (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); masquerade (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); masquerade (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); masquerade (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); masquerade (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); masquerade (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); masquerade (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); masquerade (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); masquerade (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-masquerade.oga, en-us-masquerade.mp3.
Cite this entry: “masquerade.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/masquerade. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.