masquerade
/ˌmæskəˈɹeɪd/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.05 in modern English
22
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
3
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
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
The act of wearing a mask or dressing up in a costume for, or as if for, a masquerade ball.
noun
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.
noun
A Spanish entertainment or military exercise in which squadrons of horses charge at each other, the riders fighting with bucklers and canes.
Obsolete
Example Sentences
- "Near-synonym: costume party"
- "I was invited to the masquerade at their home."
- "What guards the purity of melting Maids, / In courtly Balls and midnight Maſquerades, / Safe from the treach'rous friend, and daring ſpark, / The glance by day, the whiſper in the dark; / [...] / 'Tis but their Sylph, the wiſe Celeſtials know, / Tho' Honour is the word with Men below."
- "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."
- "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."
Etymology
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˌmæskəˈɹeɪd/
- British English: /ˌmæskəˈɹeɪd/