masquerade

An assembly or party of people wearing (usually elaborate or fanciful) masks and costumes, and amusing themselves with dancing, conversation, or other diversions.alsoattributive

• Near-synonym: costume party
• I was invited to the masquerade at their home.

The act of wearing a mask or dressing up in a costume for, or as if for, a masquerade ball.alsoattributive

An act of living under false pretenses; a concealment of something by a false or unreal show; a disguise, a pretence; also, a pretentious display.alsoattributivefiguratively

• Verres in the youth of Cicero, Catiline and Clodius in his middle age, Mark Antony in his old age, have all been left to operate on the modern reader's feelings precisely through that masquerade of misrepresentation which invariably accompa

An assembly of varied, often fanciful, things.alsoattributivefiguratively

A cosplay event at which costumed attendees perform skits.alsoattributiveslang

A dramatic performance by actors in masks; a mask or masque.alsoattributiveobsolete

A Spanish entertainment or military exercise in which squadrons of horses charge at each other, the riders fighting with bucklers and canes.alsoattributiveobsolete

To take part in a masquerade; to assemble in masks and costumes; (loosely) to wear a disguise.alsoattributiveintransitive

• I’m going to masquerade as an old-fashioned pilot. What are you going to dress up as?

To pass oneself off as a different person or a person with qualities that one does not possess; also, to make a pretentious show of being what one is not.alsoattributivefiguratively

• He masqueraded as my friend until the truth finally came out.

To appear as something else.alsoattributivebroadly

• A Foundation outpost masquerading as an abandoned home has been established within the vicinity of SCP-2003.

To conceal (someone) with, or as if with, a mask; to disguise.alsoattributiverare