masquerade

Universal Words noun, verb noun 1 (formal) a way of behaving that hides the truth or a person's true feelings: He was tired of the masquerade and wanted the truth to come out. 2 (especially AmE) a type of party where people wear special COSTUMES and MASKS over their faces, to hide their identities verb [V] ~ as sth to pretend to be sth that you are not: commercial advertisers masquerading as private individuals * The local paper is full of gossip masquerading as news.