cha·rade

(shə-rād′)

1. Games

a. charades(used with a sing. or pl. verb) A game in which words or phrases are represented in pantomime, sometimes syllable by syllable, until they are guessed by the other players.

b. An episode in this game or a word or phrase so represented.

2. A readily perceived pretense; a travesty: went through the charade of a public apology.

[French, probably from Provençal charrado, chat, from charra, to chat, chatter, perhaps from Italian ciarlare.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

charades

(ʃəˈrɑːdz)

(Games, other than specified) (functioning as singular) a parlour game in which one team acts out each syllable of a word, the other team having to guess the word

[C18: from French charade entertainment, from Provençal charrado chat, from charra chatter, of imitative origin]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

charades - player acts out a phrase for others to guess

guessing game - a game in which participants compete to identify some obscurely indicated thing

charade - a word acted out in an episode of the game of charades

Translations

حَزاير تَمْثيليّه

šaráda

gæt og grimasser

Silbenrätsel

charade

kitalálósdi

látbragîsgáta

ordgåtelek

šaráda

sessiz filmsözcük bulma oyunu

一种看手势猜字谜游戏动作字谜游戏

charade

(ʃəˈraːd) , ((American) ʃəˈreid) noun

a piece of ridiculous pretence which is so obvious that it does not deceive anyone.

chaˈrades noun singular

a game in which each syllable of a word, and then the whole word, is acted and the audience has to guess the word.

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

He was invited to contribute any really good enigmas, charades, or conundrums that he might recollect; and she had the pleasure of seeing him most intently at work with his recollections; and at the same time, as she could perceive, most earnestly careful that nothing ungallant, nothing that did not breathe a compliment to the sex should pass his lips.

I have read worse charades. Courtshipa very good hint.

View in context

As soon as the merry meal and a brief interval of repose were over, it was unanimously voted to have some charades. A smooth, green spot between two stately pines was chosen for the stage; shawls hung up, properties collected, audience and actors separated, and a word quickly chosen.

So everyone but Mac, the gay Westerner, and Rose, took their places on the rocky seats and discussed the late beautiful and varied charade, in which Pokey frankly pronounced her own scene the "bestest of all."

View in context

Such disappointments only gave greater zest to the nights when we acted charades, or had a costume ball in the back parlour, with Sally always dressed like a boy.

View in context

They had never, I think, wanted to do so many things for their poor protectress; I mean--though they got their lessons better and better, which was naturally what would please her most-- in the way of diverting, entertaining, surprising her; reading her passages, telling her stories, acting her charades, pouncing out at her, in disguises, as animals and historical characters, and above all astonishing her by the "pieces" they had secretly got by heart and could interminably recite.

View in context

I wondered what they were going to do the first evening a change of entertainment was proposed: they spoke of "playing charades," but in my ignorance I did not understand the term.

"Bridewell!" exclaimed Colonel Dent, and the charade was solved.

View in context

The acting of charades was tried on several evenings by the young gentlemen and ladies, in the cabins, and proved the most distinguished success of all the amusement experiments.

View in context

At this time the amiable amusement of acting charades had come among us from France, and was considerably in vogue in this country, enabling the many ladies amongst us who had beauty to display their charms, and the fewer number who had cleverness to exhibit their wit.

View in context

Badger, speaking of her former husbands as if they were parts of a charade, "I still enjoyed opportunities of observing youth.

View in context

And yet people do not get hanged or run through the body for the sake of a charade.

View in context