charade

About 0.46 uses per million words.

Meaning

1. 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.
2. noun A single round of the game charades, an acted form of the earlier riddles.
3. noun A play resembling the game charades, particularly due to poor acting.
4. noun A deception or pretense, originally an absurdly obvious one but now in general use.

   This whole charade is absurd.

5. noun A form of wordplay where several words are placed together to form a new word or part thereof.
6. verb To act out a charade (of); to gesture; to pretend.

Similar words

takeoff burlesque spoof parody sendup travesty mockery lampoon pasquinade gambling

Often followed by

of was and that in to is for with

Word family

charades