Word.ws English Dictionary

masquerading

masquerading is the present participle and gerund of masquerade.

Meaning of masquerade

Verb

masquerade (third-person singular simple present masquerades, present participle masquerading, simple past and past participle masqueraded)

  1. (also, attributive, intransitive) 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?
  2. (also, attributive, figuratively, intransitive) 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.
  3. (also, attributive, broadly, figuratively, intransitive) 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
  4. (also, attributive, rare, transitive) To conceal (someone) with, or as if with, a mask; to disguise.

See all 11 meanings of masquerade

Noun

masquerading (plural masqueradings)

  1. The act of one who masquerades.
    • At supper, the same evening, after his return, the emperor was relating to Berthier, Mortier, Duroc, and other officers present, the history of his unfortunate masqueradings, at the same time laughing very heartily at his want of success in un-playing the emperor.1838, John Smythe Memes, Memoirs of the Empress Josephine, page 330

Forms of masquerading

pluralmasqueradings

Questions about masquerading

What does masquerading mean?
Masquerading means the act of one who masquerades.
What is masquerading the present participle and gerund of?
Masquerading is the present participle and gerund of masquerade.
What part of speech is masquerading?
Masquerading is a noun.
What is the plural of masquerading?
The plural of masquerading is masqueradings.

Words near masquerading in the dictionary

  1. masquerade
  2. masqueraded
  3. masquerader
  4. masqueraders
  5. masquerades
  6. masquerading
  7. masqueradingly
  8. masqueradings
  9. masqueradish
  10. masquers
  11. masques

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: masquerading (page history and authors); masquerade (page history and authors). 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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Cite this entry: “masquerading.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/masquerading. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.