charades

English

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.

Noun

charades

1. plural of charade

Noun

charades (uncountable)

1. 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.
   • 1909, Booth Tarkington, Beasley's Christmas Party:

     […] 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 […]

Synonyms

• (game): acting charades, dumb charades (obsolete)

Translations

game

• Catalan: xarada (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 比手畫腳／比手画脚 (zh) (zbǐshǒuhuàjiǎo)

• Czech: šarády f pl
• Finnish: pantomiimi (fi)
• French: mime (fr) f
• German: Scharade (de) f, pantomimisches Ratespiel n
• Hungarian: kitalálós játék, most mutasd meg
• Japanese: シャレード (sharēdo), ジェスチャーゲーム (jesuchā gēmu)
• Persian: پانتومیم (fa) (pântomim)
• Polish: kalambury m pl
• Portuguese: mímica (pt) f
• Russian: шара́да (ru) f (šaráda)
• Swedish: charad (sv) c, levande charad c
• Turkish: sessiz sinema (tr)

Anagrams

• hard case, hardcase