Charade: A Guessing Game, and an Obvious Pretence
A charade is a pretence that fools nobody. The plural names the party game where players act out words in silence, and the two senses have quietly swapped importance.
A charade is an act put on for show, transparently false. The word arrived as a word game, became a party game of silent acting, and then produced the singular meaning of an empty pretence — because that is what the game consists of.
- An obvious pretence. *The trial was a charade.*
- The acting game (usually plural). *We played charades after dinner.*
- A riddle acted out or described in syllables. *A Victorian charade in verse.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | charade | The whole thing was a charade. |
| Plural | charades | A game of charades. |
| Near synonym | sham | A sham election. |
| Near synonym | pretence | Keep up the pretence. |
| Near synonym | farce | The meeting was a farce. |
How it is used in a sentence
- Nobody believed the charade for a moment.Singular — a transparent pretence.
- They played charades on Christmas Day.The game takes a plural verb and no article.
- He kept up the charade for another week.Keep up is the usual verb.
Charade, farce, sham and facade
- Charade — a pretence everyone can see through
- Farce — an absurd situation, from the comic theatre genre
- Sham — a deliberate fake, emphasis on the deception
- Facade — a false front hiding something real behind it
From French *charade*, from an Occitan word for chatter. It began as a literary riddle where each syllable of a word was described in turn; Victorian parlour culture turned it into acting, and the modern silent version came later.
Charades or charade for the game?
Always the plural: *play charades*. The singular means one pretence, not one round.
How is it pronounced?
Sha-RAHD in British English, sha-RAYD in American English. Both are standard.