charade

Meanings

Noun

• A genre of riddles where the clues to the answer are descriptions or puns on its syllables, with a final clue to the whole.
• A single round of the game charades, an acted form of the earlier riddles.
• A play resembling the game charades, particularly due to poor acting.
• A deception or pretense, originally an absurdly obvious one but now in general use.

Verb

• To act out a charade (of); to gesture; to pretend.

Origin

• From French charade, charrade, probably from Occitan charrada ("conversation; chatter"), from charrar + -ada. As a round of the game, originally a but now usually understood and formed as a .