Charades
noun, verb
noun, verb ·2 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 plural of charade form-of, plural
- 2 A game in which each player acts out a word or phrase, usually based on puns of each syllable and without speaking, for the others to guess. uncountable
"[…] it looked like a house where they played charades, where there would be long streamers of evergreen and dozens of wreaths of holly at Christmas-time, where there were tearful, happy weddings and great throwings of rice after little brides […]"
- 3 guessing game in which one player pantomimes a word or phrase for others to guess wordnet
Verb
- 1 third-person singular simple present indicative of charade form-of, indicative, present, singular, third-person
Example
More examples"We played an entertaining game of charades after dinner."
Etymology
See charade. As a game, originally a clipped form of acting charades or, without talking, dumb charades but now usually understood as a plurale tantum.
Related phrases
More for "charades"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.