Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use charade in a sentence

15 example sentences · noun, verb

Charade means a genre of riddles where the clues to the answer are descriptions or puns on its syllables, with a final clue to the whole. Example: “This whole charade is absurd.”

Examples of charade by meaning

nounA single round of the game charades, an acted form of the earlier riddles.

  • A brilliant example of the acted charade is described in Thackeray’s Vanity Fair.1911, "Charade" in the Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed., Vol. V, p. 856

nounA deception or pretense, originally an absurdly obvious one but now in general use.

  • This whole charade is absurd.
  • “The way you’ve been talking about this — that dumb fucking charade with the Epstein files, the ‘They’re on my desk’ nonsense, all the promises to the folks out there.”2026 June 10, Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Swan, “Inside Trump’s White House, the Epstein Files Caused a Freakout”, in The New York Times...

nounA form of wordplay where several words are placed together to form a new word or part thereof.

  • Sometimes the tricks above may be used in combination: a homophone may come in two pieces like a charade (RAINBOW sounding like REIGN + BEAU) or a charade may be reversed (TACKLE having ELK + CAT backwards).2009 May 5, Emily Cox, Henry Rathvon, The Atlantic Cryptic Crosswords, Sterling Publishing Company, Inc., →ISBN, page 5
  • Takes is a bit of a charade indicator here, telling you that one word takes on or adds on to another.2012 October 15, Denise Sutherland, Solving Cryptic Crosswords For Dummies, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 37
  • They are all charades, some of which use link words of the types described above.2020 August 20, Telegraph Media Group Ltd, The Telegraph: How To Solve a Cryptic Crossword: Mastering cryptic crosswords made easy...

verbTo act out a charade (of); to gesture; to pretend.

  • It is when it takes the form of charading gay punishment, punishing one of our own in order to allow him a gay contact.1977 April 30, David Holland, John Rechy, “The Politics of 'The Sexual Outlaw'”, in Gay Community News, page 10
  • She flaps her hands and arms, eyes glaring, head shaking – charading Non, non, NON!2015, Graeme Fife, Tour de France: The History, The Legend, The Riders
  • Private, wholesome family time could no longer charade as being either private or wholly wholesome.2017, David Friend, The Naughty Nineties

More sentences with charade

  • Although some word games, such as anagrams and crosswords, can be completed alone, others such as charades are designed for groups.From the entry word game
  • The new college hallmates were awkward with each other at first, but after a game of charades as an icebreaker, they were laughing like old friends.From the entry icebreaker
  • At some point, you will have to admit you and I are it, and this silly charade can end.2018, Lauren Dane, Chased. From the entry blandoid
  • True, blacks put on their masters' demanded Sambo charade.1994, William Freehling, The Reintegration of American History: Slavery and the Civil War. From the entry charader
  • Yet, she responded favorably to this drollery, with the proviso that the President includes himself in the farcical charade, which (in sham fashion) Marcos has obliged.2025 September 5, Van Ybiernas, “The most dangerous forms of corruption are subtle and below the radar”, in The Manila Times, retrieved 07…. From the entry inutile
  • Needless to say, toward the end of Martin's first term, the relationship he once enjoyed with President Waverly had evolved into a slapdash charade of cheap promises and cheesy smiles.2008, Jeff Spanke, Second Hand Out, page 86. From the entry cheesy

Meaning of charade

  1. noun A genre of riddles where the clues to the answer are descriptions or puns on its syllables, with a final clue to the whole.
  2. noun A single round of the game charades, an acted form of the earlier riddles.
  3. noun A play resembling the game charades, particularly due to poor acting.

Full definition of charade

Questions about charade in a sentence

How do you use charade in a sentence?
Charade is used as a noun and verb. For example: “This whole charade is absurd.”
What is a short sentence with charade?
“This whole charade is absurd.”
What does charade mean?
Charade means a genre of riddles where the clues to the answer are descriptions or puns on its syllables, with a final clue to the whole.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: charade (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use charade in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/charade. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.