charade
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: literature
media
publishing
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.
Inflected forms:
form: charades
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: charades
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: charading
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: charaded
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: charaded
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: A genre of riddles where the clues to the answer are descriptions or puns on its syllables, with a final clue to the whole.
pos: noun
tags: archaic
examples: CHARADE, a trifling species of composition, or quasi-literary form of amusement, which may perhaps be best defined as a punning enigma propounded in a series of descriptions. A word is taken of two or more syllables, each forming a distinct word; each of these is described in verse or prose, as aptly and enigmatically as possible; and the same process is applied to the whole word. The neater and briefer the descriptive parts of the problem, the better the charade will be. In selecting words for charades, special attention should be paid to the absolute quality of the syllables composing them, inaccuracy in trifles of this sort depriving them of what little claim to merit they may possess. The brilliant rhythmic trifles of W. Mackworth Praed are well known. Of representative prose charades, the following specimens are perhaps as good as could be selected:—“My first, with the most rooted antipathy to a Frenchman, prides himself, whenever they meet, upon sticking close to his jacket; my second has many virtues, nor is its least that it gives its name to my first; my whole may I never catch!” “My first is company; my second shuns company; my third collects company; and my whole amuses company.” The solutions are Tar-tar and Co-nun-drum.
gloss: A single round of the game charades, an acted form of the earlier riddles.
pos: noun
tags: uncommon
examples: ...The most popular form of this amusement is the acted charade, in which the meaning of the different syllables is acted out on the stage, the audience being left to guess each syllable and thus, combining the meaning of all the syllables, the whole word. A brilliant example of the acted charade is described in Thackeray’s Vanity Fair.
gloss: A play resembling the game charades, particularly due to poor acting.
pos: noun
tags: obsolete
gloss: A deception or pretense, originally an absurdly obvious one but now in general use.
pos: noun
examples: This whole charade is absurd.
The woman lying dead in the morgue was the woman at the party. Well, Victor, maybe I'm missing something here. You call it fake, a charade… Do you mind telling me what kind of fuckin' charade ends up with somebody turning up dead?
gloss: A form of wordplay where several words are placed together to form a new word or part thereof.
pos: noun
examples: Sometimes the tricks above may be used in combination: a homophone may come in two pieces like a charade (RAINBOW sounding like REIGN + BEAU) or a charade may be reversed (TACKLE having ELK + CAT backwards).
Takes is a bit of a charade indicator here, telling you that one word takes on or adds on to another.
Try solving the following clues. They are all charades, some of which use link words of the types described above.
gloss: To act out a charade (of); to gesture; to pretend.
pos: verb
examples: I'm not trying to say: let's try to get away from power rituals because power manifestation is a very important part of sex. It is when it takes the form of charading gay punishment, punishing one of our own in order to allow him a gay contact.
She flaps her hands and arms, eyes glaring, head shaking – charading Non, non, NON!
Private, wholesome family time could no longer charade as being either private or wholly wholesome.
Translations:
lang: Catalan
word: xarada
lang: Esperanto
word: ŝarado
lang: French
word: charade
lang: German
word: Scharade
lang: German
word: Silbenrätsel
lang: German
word: Versrätsel
lang: Hungarian
word: sarád
lang: Italian
word: sciarada
lang: Ladino
word: sharada
lang: Ladino
word: indivinansa
lang: Occitan
word: charrada
lang: Portuguese
word: charada
lang: Russian
word: шара́да
roman: šaráda
lang: Spanish
word: charada
lang: Swedish
word: charad