Charade

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ʃəˈɹɑːd/

Definitions

1. A game where players mime words or phrases for others to guess ; an action or event that is insincere and designed to mislead
2. Performing silent gestures to represent a term in a recreational guessing activity ; a pretended or false display that conceals the truth
3. A playful imitation involving expressive movement to convey a message without speaking ; a deceptive pretense meant to create a false impression

Etymology: The most striking thing about "charade" is that the game came first and the word for the riddle came later. In French, "charade" originally meant idle chatter or a kind of riddle, and it probably came from Occitan "charrada," a word for conversation and chatter, built from "charrar," meaning to chat or prattle, with the suffix "-ada" added. The French word then gave English its sense of a guessing game in which players act out the syllables of a word or phrase. The English word was first a clipping of "acting charade," the full name of the game. Over time, people came to understand "charades" as the plural base and "charade" as a singular formed back from it, which is why the word now usually feels like the simpler form. From the game's performance of silent clues, the meaning widened to any pretense of expressive gesture, and to a deceptive pretense meant to create a false impression.

Synonyms: pretence, deception, masquerade, farce, show

Antonyms: truth, genuineness, reality, authenticity, honesty