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Definition of masquerade : 1. A dramatic performance by actors in masks; a mask. See 1st Mask, 4.
2. A Spanish diversion on horseback.
3. Acting or living under false pretenses; concealment of something by a false or unreal show; pretentious show; disguise.
4. An assembly of persons wearing masks, and amusing themselves with dancing, conversation, or other diversions.
5. To assemble in masks; to take part in a masquerade.
6. To conceal with masks; to disguise.
7. To frolic or disport in disquise; to make a pretentious show of being what one is not.

Synonyms:

party, fancy dress, coloring, festivity, Mardi Gras, dissemblance, veil, pretext, honest, masquerade party, true, masque, entertainment, acting, carnival, sham, circus, disguisement, window-dressing, mask, face, masquerade costume, semblance, mask-ball, simulation, mummery, cloak, masked ball, act, masking, put-on, dance, false colors, veneer, gloss, color

deceive, claim, forge, falsify, counterfeit, bluff, impersonate, fake, pose, pretend, show, stage, cover, disguise, defraud, affect, imitate

forgery, pretension, imitation, front, mannerism, device, affectation, gimmick, facade, air, guise, charade, fakery, artificiality, imposture, ostentation, pretense, deceit, impersonation, fraud, falseness

Usage examples:

• Perhaps he blamed himself as he went over again the incidents of that fatal night when he kept Ethelyn from the masquerade; but if he did, no one was the wiser for it, and so the first long day wore on, and the night fell again upon the inmates of the farmhouse. - "Ethelyn's Mistake", Mary Jane Holmes.
• There was to be a special masquerade dance, he gathered. - "The Star Lord", Boyd Ellanby.
• What masquerade is this? - "Dreamers of the Ghetto", I. Zangwill.