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

This is going to be some kind of schoolboy masquerade, I thought, some masquerade with masks and candles.

From "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles

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

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026

His masquerades flattered his clientele, and their demand created a service industry.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 2026

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

It masquerades as a two-dollar word, but it’s really worth only about twenty cents.

From "Woe Is I" by Patricia T. O'Conner

“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

He later masqueraded online as a Russian tech worker with a pseudonym, BadVolf, to leak confidential information in violation of state law, fooling officials in Florida who thought they were dealing with a foreigner.

From New York Times ● May 29, 2024

Meanwhile, Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek Pinault shared a laugh, Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh looked stunned and an impostor donkey masqueraded as Jenny from “The Banshees of Inisherin.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 12, 2023

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

From "Throne of Glass" by Sarah J. Maas

To say these are press releases masquerading as lawsuits does not convey how weak these cases legally are.

From Slate ● Oct. 23, 2026

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

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026

To start, they’ve been masquerading as a vegetable when they are actually classified as botanical fruits.

From Salon ● Apr. 6, 2026

“This is a fight about vibes and personalities masquerading as a policy dispute,” said Michael Horowitz, a former Defense Department official who worked on AI policy.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 3, 2026

Outside and around, the little town masquerading as a village stirred and came to life.

From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy