masquerade

A masquerade without masks is merely fancy dress with an open bar.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 2026

The production, co-directed by Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch, ditches the feline masquerade for a parade of costumes designed with unflagging inspiration by Qween Jean.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 5, 2026

And though the high gloss may be an act given Gaston’s actual vocation, Marshall plays the part as if the crook himself believes the masquerade.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 10, 2026

The Bohemian second son has so far refused to settle down, but this all changes when he meets a masked lady in silver at a masquerade ball.

From BBC ● Feb. 26, 2026

He’s trying to tell me he remembers that one time we danced at the masquerade ball back in sixth grade, just like I do!

From "From Twinkle, with Love" by Sandhya Menon

That kind of cynicism is cheap and facile and masquerades as intelligence and erudition.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026

The track masquerades as easygoing reggae-pop, but the singer is looking for payback—it turns out she’s grinning because her cheating ex is now crying.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2025

But it all falls broadly under the same boring commodification of the idea of “mental health”: a sweatshirt or a lipstick or a funny TikTok video that masquerades as more than it is.

From Slate ● Nov. 1, 2023

Although the letter doesn’t clearly define pseudoscience, Lau notes that a “commonsensical definition” is that pseudoscience refers to “something that is not very scientifically supported, that masquerades as if it is already very scientifically established.”

From Scientific American ● Sep. 21, 2023

I have heard about the masquerades in England, with their grand costumes and music and acting, but only nobles are allowed to see them.

From "Blood on the River" by Elisa Carbone

“For over a decade, these three brothers, the defendants, masqueraded as party boys when really they were predators,” said prosecutor Madison Smyser.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 27, 2026

Last season he had masqueraded as Player 001, fooling Gi-hun into trusting him throughout the games and with the armed rebellion, which Front Man of course sabotaged.

From Salon ● Jan. 30, 2025

Officials say people have impersonated firefighters to get into fire-ravaged zones, and now a pair have allegedly masqueraded as members of the media.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 20, 2025

While evading police, Morgan masqueraded as a rapper and tech entrepreneur.

From BBC ● Aug. 3, 2023

Bored of these women, bored of these cavaliers who masqueraded as companions, bored of everything.

From "Throne of Glass" by Sarah J. Maas

Left alone, tradition gets sillier and more alive whether it involves a god, a robot, or a scallion masquerading as a paintbrush.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 2026

Hunter Schafer plays Yeoh’s partner, a human masquerading as a replicant.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026

This may be a financial burden masquerading as an opportunity.

From MarketWatch ● May 5, 2026

Granola that’s either stale — thin-sliced cardstock masquerading as crunch — or so aggressively hard it feels like a dare to your dental work.

From Salon ● Mar. 17, 2026

Confronted with the new fact—that his company was effectively long $50 billion in triple-B subprime mortgage bonds, masquerading as triple-A-rated diversified pools of consumer loans—Cassano at first sought to rationalize it.

From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis