masquerade
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A party of guests wearing costumes and masks.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
maskeraydSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
mæskɚˈeɪd
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A party of guests wearing costumes and masks
The act of wearing a mask or dressing up in a costume for, or as if for, a masquerade ball.
A costume worn as a disguise at a masquerade party
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.
figuratively
An assembly of varied, often fanciful, things.
verb
intransitive
To take part in a masquerade; to assemble in masks and costumes; (loosely) to wear a disguise.
intransitivefiguratively
To pass 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.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A party of guests wearing costumes and masks
Used this way, masquerade is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
A party of guests wearing costumes and masks.
A person wearing a mask.
A costume worn as a disguise at a masquerade party.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A ball at which guests wear costumes and masks.
A costume worn as a disguise at a masquerade party.
A party of guests wearing costumes and masks.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.