(n.) A verbal or acted enigma based upon a word which has two or more significant syllables or parts, each of which, as well as the word itself, is to be guessed from the descriptions or representations.
Example Sentences:
(1) When we arrived, he would instruct us to spend the morning composing a song or a poem, or inventing a joke or a charade.
(2) He was a lateral and fearless thinker for whom the presentation of ideas was like a game of intellectual charades, with a few clues as to the meaning of the work thrown in every now and again.
(3) Ranieri's dismissal doubtless came as a relief to him, ending a charade that saw him summoned to two meetings with Chelsea's chief executive Peter Kenyon over the past week at which he was asked to discuss his future plans for the club.
(4) Trimming, triangulating, sneaking small policy advantages and wallowing in the narcissism of small differences, the parties seemed locked in a distant and disreputable Westminster charade.
(5) The recent parliamentary elections, widely dismissed as a charade, tend to confirm US views.
(6) Ernest Hemingway is the key performer in this charade, his characterisation of Stein as “a woman who isn’t a woman” a crude mirroring of his own gender fears.
(7) She decided to carry on with the charade and answer real questions about policy during the debate.
(8) By the end of the 1960s he had a considerable reputation as a novelist (his first, Charade, drawing on his Crown Film Unit experience, and unrelated to the movie, appeared in 1947) and playwright, and had played an important role in the abolition of the death penalty and the passage of the Theatres Act, which saw off that bane of the British stage, the Lord Chamberlain's power of censorship – not that his own work had ever been in danger from this quarter.
(9) Do not use our music or my voice for your 1) September 9, 2015 Mike Mills (@m_millsey) ...moronic charade of a campaign."
(10) The judge told Gray that her dependence on Butler was so deep that she was prepared to do anything for him, including participating in the “grotesque charade” of a 999 call two hours after Ellie was murdered.
(11) At all events, we are back to the old days of appointments not applications, and a lot of distinguished candidates have been the victims of what became a complete charade.
(12) One of those on the previous committee confided that the entire procedure was a charade, but a good networking opportunity.
(13) Scrutiny of EU measures Parliamentary proceedings are increasingly "becoming a charade" because of the amount of EU measures parliament has to pass unamended, Tory ex-chancellor Lord Lamont complained, saying: "Fifty percent of all major British legislation starts in the EU".
(14) Rights groups have accused Sisi’s regime of using the judiciary as a tool to oppress opposition, with Amnesty International denouncing the death sentence as “a charade based on null and void procedures”.
(15) The advantage of the internet is that it has taken away the charade of politics.
(16) Shaker might wonder out loud why Britain went along with President Bush’s deadly charade.
(17) Egypt has pardoned and released two al-Jazeera journalists who had been jailed for disseminating “false news” in a trial widely criticised as a political charade by human rights groups and international observers.
(18) "Now it appears that the entire process was a charade.
(19) He concluded by saying: “This unhappy sequence of events drives me to the conclusion either that Mr Kovtun never in truth intended to give evidence and that this has been a charade.
(20) Mousavi said this morning: "I personally strongly protest the many obvious violations and I'm warning I will not surrender to this dangerous charade.
Pretence
Definition:
(a.) Alt. of Pretenceless
(n.) The act of laying claim; the claim laid; assumption; pretension.
(n.) The act of holding out, or offering, to others something false or feigned; presentation of what is deceptive or hypocritical; deception by showing what is unreal and concealing what is real; false show; simulation; as, pretense of illness; under pretense of patriotism; on pretense of revenging Caesar's death.
(n.) That which is pretended; false, deceptive, or hypocritical show, argument, or reason; pretext; feint.
(n.) Intention; design.
Example Sentences:
(1) "The ANC pretence that we don't have a social crisis in this country is quite ridiculous.
(2) Athens was unravelling into chaos, unable to form a government and forced into fresh elections , plunging the markets into freefall as Europe's leaders abandoned any pretence that a Greek exit from the euro might not be imminent.
(3) Jean Leston, transport policy manager of WWF-UK, said: "We're being sold airport expansion under false pretences.
(4) Neither Dave nor I seem able to keep up this pretence.
(5) To the seven million citizens who watched Liu’s slow death in equal parts horror and grief, any remaining pretence that modern China is a benevolent paternal state that has moved beyond a brutal response to political debate has been shattered once and for all.
(6) It solemnly proclaimed Ireland's independence, appointed ambassadors to the Peace Conference, where they have not yet been bidden, passed an address to the free nations of the world, and made some pretence of framing orders for its domestic procedure.
(7) In some instances, there was little pretence at hiding that resort to pressure – at least within US government circles.
(8) 'There are other correspondents on BBC radio eg John Pienaar who IMO [in my opinion] have given up any pretence of being impartial and seem to think their job is to criticise Gordon Brown.
(9) Since his hospitalisation, Musharraf has made no public appearances and there has been rampant speculation in the media that he would be evacuated from the country under a medical pretence.
(10) I make no pretence at being well-versed in politics – it is all too often about personalities and emotion – but I do know a thing or two about our constitution, as I once trained to be a lawyer.
(11) And let’s drop the pretence that the west did not effectively back jihadis in Syria either.
(12) Within 30 seconds any pretence was always unnecessary").
(13) On one hand, if the officers had faced charges, it would have drawn “a very clear line in the sand”, deterring future officers from having sex under false pretences on the basis that a rape charge could await them.
(14) "Unfortunately we've had in the region of 500-plus criminals – people hiding under the pretence of the TUC march – who have caused considerable damage, attacked police officers, attacked police vehicles and scared the general public.
(15) It accuses the letter's signatories of being "openly self-interested" and says: "Any pretence that the BBC is not similarly self-interested is at an end."
(16) The BBC presenter confided to the Radio Times that he shares widespread public disdain for the "tawdry pretences" of modern politicians and the "green-bench pantomime" of Westminster politics.
(17) Jones suggests that the great weight of international scientific opinion agreeing that warming is caused by human agency means the BBC need no longer quote balancing deniers when only "the pretence of debate remains".
(18) Blogger Yomi Adegoke said: "Thinly veiling vanity as philanthropy more than irks … the pretence these images are for anything other than an onslaught of 'natural beauty' acclamations, coupled with pats on the back for 'fighting the cause' makes the no makeup selfie mania even harder to stomach."
(19) Brecht provides a memorable montage of life in Nazi Germany where parents live in terror of being denounced by their son and where a Jewish wife, in order to protect her gentile husband, leaves him on the pretence of taking a holiday.
(20) After commenters reacted negatively to a video in which Doré and her friends referred to not eating dessert at lunch because of the need to fit into their fashion week outfits, Doré responded with a post attacking the double standards and dishonesty rife in the media, where ultra-slender actresses maintain a pretence of eating cheeseburgers.