Make Your Point > Archived Issues > FACADE

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pronounce FACADE: Say it "fuh SOD." To hear it, click here. connect this word to others: If you've visited the Tri-Cities airport in east Tennessee, you probably remember its distinctive facade... but you may have forgotten its less-distinctive interior. And with that word, facade, we've got a powerful metaphor: you see a facade, or face, immediately, but once you move beyond that, you might see something entirely different. Let's recall another architectural metaphor. A k__st__e is the piece at the top of an arch that keeps all the other pieces in place. Or, it's the most important part of something, uniting and supporting all the other parts.  (To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.) definition: Our word "facade" came through French and Italian, ultimately from the Latin word for "face." Literally speaking, a facade is the "face" of a building: the front part of the building that faces the street. Figuratively speaking, a facade is a fake attitude or a fake appearance, designed to seem nice or to hide the ugly truth. grammatical bits: Part of speech: Noun, the countable kind: "This house has a lovely facade;" "Don't fall for these people's facades." Other forms:  The only common one is just the plural noun, "facades." There's a rare adjective, "facadal." And if you'd like to preserve the French look of this word--yup, we took it from French, which took it from Italian, which, naturally, took it from Latin--then you can write the little mark below the "c:" "façade." how to use it: Often, we use this word literally to label the front of a building, often a large, fancy one: "On Rainbow Row, each home's facade is a different color."  But literal facades don't have to be large or fancy. "We gasped when we saw the shack's facade, molding and crumbling." We use "facade" figuratively whenever we need a common yet fancy-sounding, fun-to-say alternative to words like "guise," mask," "semblance," and "pretense." By calling something a facade, we compare it to the front of a building. For example, we might talk a person's confident facade and the fears or anxieties hiding behind it. A group of people, too, like a club or a company, might present a certain facade. And even a situation might display a facade. We might label something a facade of whatever it is, like "a facade of confidence," or "a facade of caring and concern." Here's the New York Times: "The country still holds elections, with the opposition candidates generally handpicked by the authorities to provide a facade of choice." Finally, we might say that something is a facade for what's really behind it: "a facade for their criminal schemes," "a facade for his bruised ego." Here's Nada Bakos: "National security cannot be a facade for racism." examples: "They start a fashion boutique as a facade for their secret agency."    — Waseem Mushtaq, BBC, 2 November 2020 "[Katherine Kealoha] perverted justice. And she did so for her own personal reasons...To facilitate a lifestyle and a facade and an image in this community."    — Michael Wheat, a special federal prosecutor, as quoted by Jennifer Sinco Kelleher in the Associated Press, 30 November 2020 has this page helped you understand "facade"? Awesome, I'm glad it helped! Thanks for letting me know! If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. study it: Explain the meaning of "facade" without saying "pretense" or "veneer." try it out: In the New York Times, the philosophy professor Christian B. Miller wrote in support of honor codes, saying that they really do prevent students from cheating on tests. Still, he admits: "It is easy to be cynical about honor pledges and honor codes. They can seem to be... just a formality, where students check a box on a form during first-year orientation and then never give it any thought for the rest of the year. Honor codes like these are indeed mere facades." With honor codes in mind as an example, talk about some other pledge, promise, display, policy, procedure, activity, or ceremony that can sometimes be a facade--but other times be genuine, meaningful, or effective. If you like, use this space to write. (To save your work, copy and paste it into an email or a document.) before you review, play: Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out. Our game for February is "Piece It Together." Use your knowledge of the given terms to define a related, ultra-rare term. For example, you could use your knowledge of CELLULAR and MULTUM IN PARVO ("a lot in a little") to define the ultra-rare PARVOCELLULAR as "small-celled." To see the answer, scroll all the way down. Enjoy! Try this one today: Use SINE DIE and CETERIS PARIBUS to define SINE PARI. review this word: 1. A few opposites of A FACADE are A. A TRUTH and AN INTERIOR. B. A PILLAR and A MAINSTAY. C. A ONE-STORY and ONE-DIMENSIONALITY. 2. In an article titled "Mathematical Skill Downplayed To Get Out Of Splitting Check," the Onion joked that a local man had _____ "a facade of mathematical incompetence." A. built B. exuded C. written Answers to review questions: 1. A 2. A Answer to the game question: SINE PARI is Latin for "without equal." It's the motto of the United States Army Special Operations Command. a final word: I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words. From my blog:    36 ways to study words.    Why we forget words, & how to remember them.    How to use sophisticated words without being awkward. To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.