masquerade

play

noun mas·quer·ade \ ˌmas-kə-ˈrād \

Definition of masquerade

1 a :a social gathering of persons wearing masks and often fantastic costumes

b :a costume for wear at such a gathering

2 :an action or appearance that is mere disguise or show

See masquerade defined for English-language learners

See masquerade defined for kids

Examples of masquerade in a Sentence

She could not keep up the masquerade any longer.
although she was deeply bored, she maintained a masquerade of polite interest as her guest droned on

Recent Examples of masquerade from the Web

From its founder to its sororities and fraternities, to its public face as a Southern Ivy, the image that Charlottesville and U.Va. occupies is a kind of Southern masquerade.

— sarah ellison, vanityfair.com, "Why Charlottesville, Liberal College Town, Became Ground Zero for White Supremacy," 15 Aug. 2017
From its founder to its sororities and fraternities, to its public face as a Southern Ivy, the image that Charlottesville and U.Va. occupies is a kind of Southern masquerade.

— sarah ellison, The Hive, "Why Charlottesville, Liberal College Town, Became Ground Zero for White Supremacy," 15 Aug. 2017
The kids will be ending their trip going to make masquerade masks at Mardi Gras World.

— kendra parks, NOLA.com, "Derek Jeter's foundation volunteers at New Orleans' Einstein Charter School," 3 Aug. 2017
Phishing is when a malicious website masquerades as a legitimate site to collect your logins for banking, email, and other sensitive information.

— ian paul, PCWorld, "AV-Comparatives' anti-phishing results for 2017 put Avast, Bitdefender, Fortinet, and Kaspersky on top," 1 Aug. 2017
Much like his namesake, the scaramouch, the Mooch masquerades as a useful idiot and a sly schemer, performing both roles while never forgetting to enthrall the audience and, most important, the boss.

— tiana lowe, National Review, "Keeping Up with the Mooches," 28 July 2017
But what if the reverse occurs and symptoms of anxiety or depression masquerade as an as-yet undiagnosed physical disorder?

— jane e. brody, idahostatesman, "When anxiety masks a medical problem," 2 July 2017
But what if the reverse occurs and symptoms of anxiety or depression masquerade as an as-yet undiagnosed physical disorder?

— jane e. brody, idahostatesman, "When anxiety masks a medical problem," 2 July 2017
But what if the reverse occurs and symptoms of anxiety or depression masquerade as an as-yet undiagnosed physical disorder?

— jane e. brody, idahostatesman, "When anxiety masks a medical problem," 2 July 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'masquerade.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of masquerade

Middle French, from Old Italian dialect mascarada, from Old Italian maschera mask

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1587

See Words from the same year

masquerade Synonyms

Synonyms

act, airs, charade, disguise, facade (also façade), front, guise, playacting, pose, pretense (or pretence), put-on, semblance, show

Near Antonyms

bluntness, candidness, candor, directness, forthrightness, frankness, openheartedness, outspokenness, plainspokenness, sincerity, straightforwardness; artlessness, genuineness, naïveté (also naivete or naiveté)

masquerade

verb

Definition of masquerade

masqueraded; masquerading

intransitive verb

1 a :to disguise oneself; also :to go about disguised

b :to take part in a masquerade

2 :to assume the appearance of something one is not

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masquerader

noun

See masquerade defined for English-language learners

Examples of masquerade in a Sentence

He was masquerading under a false name.

Recent Examples of masquerade from the Web

The college is also accused of allowing private security officers to masquerade as cops.

— the oregonian/oregonlive, OregonLive.com, "State gets emergency power to order emotional fitness exams for armed guards," 17 Aug. 2017
Trump’s Iraq war claim is a tidy illustration of how common sense, even while masquerading as unchanging and disinterested, is just as fluid as any other source of knowledge or legitimacy.

— david a. graham, The Atlantic, "Why Trump Invokes ‘Common Sense’," 4 Aug. 2017
The eight episodes that make up Ten Years Later are at once mercifully lean and also stocked to the brim with cameos, visual jokes, inside jokes, and new jokes masquerading as inside jokes.

— tom philip, GQ, "Wet Hot American Summer," 3 Aug. 2017
The first stage was distributed through Google Play and other channels and usually masqueraded as a legitimate app.

— dan goodin, Ars Technica, "Stealthy Google Play apps recorded calls and stole e-mails and texts," 27 July 2017
The gala was held in the BMO Harris Bradley Center, an arena not quite 30 years old that has housed the Milwaukee Bucks and Marquette and a perfectly good building soon to be sacrificed on behalf of greed masquerading as progress.

— charles p. pierce, SI.com, "As progress rounds off Marquette's edges, celebrating a unique program's unlikely success," 26 June 2017
Weirdly enough, a lot of fans — like, at least a dozen — commented that Miranda, masquerading as her sneaky on-screen alter-ego Megan, must have hacked into Drake's email account to delete the wedding invitation.

— hannah orenstein, Seventeen, "Fans Think Miranda Cosgrove Wasn't Invited to Josh Peck's Wedding," 21 June 2017
But the interesting difference is that Imhotep in the 1932 world has been masquerading as a regular guy.

— josephine livingstone, New Republic, "What Happened to the Scary Summer Horror Movie?," 16 June 2017
Goldman’s Lloyd Blankfein and Citigroup’s Michael Corbat, as well as Citigroup consumer-banking chief Stephen Bird, responded over the weekend to emails sent by the anonymous prankster masquerading as top executives at...

— liz hoffman and telis demos, WSJ, "Goldman’s Blankfein, Citi’s Corbat Duped by Email Prankster," 12 June 2017

First Known Use of masquerade

1677

MASQUERADE Defined for English Language Learners

masquerade

play

noun

Definition of masquerade for English Language Learners

: a party at which people wear masks and often costumes
: a way of appearing or behaving that is not true or real

masquerade

verb

Definition of masquerade for English Language Learners

: to pretend to be someone or something else

MASQUERADE Defined for Kids

masquerade

play

noun mas·quer·ade \ ˌma-skə-ˈrād \

Definition of masquerade for Students

1 :a party (as a dance) at which people wear masks and costumes

2 :the act of pretending to be something different His friendliness was just a masquerade.

masquerade

verb

Definition of masquerade for Students

masqueraded; masquerading

1 :to wear a disguise

2 :to pretend to be something different :pose

He was masquerading as a policeman.

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masquerader

noun

Learn More about masquerade

See words that rhyme with masquerade Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for masquerade Spanish Central: Translation of masquerade Nglish: Translation of masquerade for Spanish speakers Britannica English: Translation of masquerade for Arabic speakers Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about masquerade

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Examples of masquerade in a Sentence

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Origin and Etymology of masquerade

masquerade Synonyms

Synonyms

Related Words

Near Antonyms

masquerade

Definition of masquerade

masquerader

Examples of masquerade in a Sentence

Recent Examples of masquerade from the Web

First Known Use of masquerade

MASQUERADE Defined for English Language Learners

masquerade

Definition of masquerade for English Language Learners

masquerade

Definition of masquerade for English Language Learners

MASQUERADE Defined for Kids

masquerade

Definition of masquerade for Students

masquerade

Definition of masquerade for Students

masquerader

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