/ ʃəˈrɑːd; NAmE ʃəˈreɪd/ noun
1.
[ C ] a situation in which people pretend that sth is true when it clearly is not
SYN pretence :
Their whole marriage had been a charade—they had never loved each other.
2.
charades [ U ] a game in which one player acts out the syllables of a word or title and the other players try to guess what it is :
Let's play charades.
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WORD ORIGIN
late 18th cent.: from French , from modern Provençal charrado conversation, from charra chatter, perhaps of imitative origin.