charade

/ʃəˈreɪd/
noun
  1. An absurd or false pretense; a situation that is clearly fake or dishonest.
    • Their apology was just a charade to avoid bad publicity.
    • She saw through his charade of being a wealthy businessman.
    • The whole meeting was a charade; the decision had already been made.
  2. A game in which players act out a word or phrase without speaking, while others try to guess it.
    • Charade is a great game for breaking the ice at family gatherings.
    • We played charade at the party and everyone laughed at my attempt to act out 'elephant'.
    • She was surprisingly good at charade, using only gestures to convey complex movie titles.
What does "charade" mean? | whatsthatwordmean | whatsthatwordmean