English Explanatory Dictionary

charade

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A genre of riddles where the clues to the answer are descriptions or puns on its syllables, with a final clue to the whole.
  2. A single round of the game charades, an acted form of the earlier riddles.
  3. A play resembling the game charades, particularly due to poor acting.
  4. A deception or pretense, originally an absurdly obvious one but now in general use.
  5. A form of wordplay where several words are placed together to form a new word or part thereof.
verb
  1. To act out a charade (of); to gesture; to pretend.

Pronunciation

shərädʹ /ʃəˈɹɑːd/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-charade.wav shərādʹ /ʃəˈɹeɪd/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-John Adams VI-Charade.wav

Word forms

charade charades charading charaded

Etymology

From French charade, charrade (“prattle, idle conversation; a kind of riddle”), probably from Occitan charrada (“conversation; chatter”), from charrar (“to chat; to chatter”) + -ada. As a round of the game, originally a clipping of acting charade but now usually understood and formed as a back-formation from charades.

Synonyms

acted charade dumb charade farce sham

Derived words

charader

Translations

Catalan: xarada Esperanto: ŝarado French: charade German: Scharade German: Silbenrätsel German: Versrätsel Hungarian: sarád Italian: sciarada Ladino: sharada Ladino: indivinansa Occitan: charrada Portuguese: charada Russian: шара́да Spanish: charada Swedish: charad
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