HOW TO PRONOUNCE
masquerade
/ˌmæskəˈɹeɪd/
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American Pronunciation Guide · 0:47
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What does masquerade mean?
noun
- An assembly or party of people wearing (usually elaborate or fanciful) masks and costumes, and amusing themselves with dancing, conversation, or other diversions.
- The act of wearing a mask or dressing up in a costume for, or as if for, a masquerade ball.
- (figuratively) 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.
More meanings (8)
noun
- (figuratively) An assembly of varied, often fanciful, things.
- (slang) A cosplay event at which costumed attendees perform skits.
- (obsolete) A dramatic performance by actors in masks; a mask or masque.
- (obsolete, rare) A Spanish entertainment or military exercise in which squadrons of horses charge at each other, the riders fighting with bucklers and canes.
verb
- To take part in a masquerade; to assemble in masks and costumes; (loosely) to wear a disguise.
- (figuratively) To pass oneself off as a different person or a person with qualities that one does not possess; also, to make a pretentious show of being what one is not.
- (figuratively) To appear as something else.
- (rare) To conceal (someone) with, or as if with, a mask; to disguise.
Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0
IPA pronunciation
/ˌmæskəˈɹeɪd/
Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 ↗Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.
In the pages of books
See this word in context.
We know what a masquerade all development is, and what effective shapes may be disguised in helpless embryos.
Her marriage to Léonce Pontellier was purely an accident, in this respect resembling many other marriages which masquerade as the decrees of Fate.
More book examples (3)
They wear diverse clothes and are subject to diverse moods, but in whatsoever ways they masquerade they are the same person all the time.
To dream of attending a masquerade, denotes that you will indulge in foolish and harmful pleasures to the neglect of business and domestic duties.
People hire houses as they would a masquerade costume, liking, sometimes, to appear for a year in a little fictitious stone-front splendor above their means.