Dictionary

facade en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /fəˈsɑ(ː)d/
• (US) audio
• /fəˈseɪd/ (obsolete)

Etymology

Borrowed from French façade, from Italian facciata, a derivation of faccia (“front”), from Latin faciēs (“face”); compare face.

Meanings

1. The face of a building, especially the front view or elevation.
   • Like so many of the finest churches, [the cathedral of Siena] was furnished with a plain substantial front wall, intended to serve as the backing and support of an ornamental façade. 1880, Charles Eliot Norton, Historical Studies of Church-Building in the Middle Ages:
   • Eight or so gunmen stood shoulder to shoulder in the gray-white trail before the barn, firing into the saloon's burning, bullet-pocked facade. 2005, Peter Brandvold, “Ghost Colts”, in Robert J. Randisi, editor, Lone Star Law, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 179:
   • In Egypt the façades of their rock-cut tombs were[…]ornamented so simply and unobtrusively as rather to belie than to announce their internal magnificence. 1865, James Fergusson, A History of Architecture in All Countries:
   • The house of Ruthven was a small but ultra-modern limestone affair, between Madison and Fifth ;[…]. As a matter of fact its narrow ornate façade presented not a single quiet space that the eyes might rest on after a tiring attempt to follow and codify the arabesques, foliations, and intricate vermiculations of what some disrespectfully dubbed as “near-aissance.” 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter V, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
2. (broadly) The face or front (most visible side) of any other thing, such as the prospect of an organ.
3. (figuratively) A deceptive or insincere outward appearance.
4. An object serving as a simplified interface to a larger body of code, as in the facade pattern.
   • Facades are widely used for tasks like simplifying complex APIs. 2017, Evan Burchard, Refactoring JavaScript: Turning Bad Code Into Good Code, O'Reilly Media, →ISBN, page 311:

Forms

Deriveds

facadism · facadal · counterfacade · facaded · facadectomy · facading · facade pattern

Synonyms

front · appearance · frontage · Potemkin village · pretence · cover · front · guise · face

Translations (106)

fi julkisivu (deceptive outward appearance) · cmn 正面 (face of a building) · nl façade (face of a building) · ist fassada (face of a building) · hu külszín (deceptive outward appearance) · nb fasade (face of a building) · hu homlokzat (face of a building) · vec fasada (face of a building) · he פָסָדָה (deceptive outward appearance) · ja 外観 (deceptive outward appearance) · pt fachada (face of a building) · he פָסוֹן (deceptive outward appearance) · id fasad (face of a building) · ja ファサード (face of a building) · nl façade (deceptive outward appearance) · tr cephe (face of a building) · ms muka bangunan (face of a building) · bg фаса́да (face of a building) · id tedeng aling-aling (deceptive outward appearance) · ar وَاجِهَة (face of a building) · cmn 外觀 /外观 (deceptive outward appearance) · ca frontera (face of a building) · id muka (front of anything) · ru фаса́д (deceptive outward appearance) · ms zahirnya (deceptive outward appearance) · da facade (face of a building) · he חֲזִית (face of a building) · fi etupuoli (front of anything) · eu fatxada (face of a building) · ca fatxada (face of a building) · id pencitraan (deceptive outward appearance) · az fasad (face of a building) · cs fasáda (face of a building) · sl pročelje (face of a building) · sh фаса́да (face of a building) · it facciata (deceptive outward appearance) · fi julkisivu (front of anything) · id depan hadapan (front of anything) · bcl atubangan (face of a building) · es frontis (front of anything) · hu kirakat (deceptive outward appearance) · de Fassade (deceptive outward appearance) · fi julkisivu (face of a building) · fr façade (face of a building) · uk фаса́д (face of a building) · fa نما (face of a building) · hy ճակատ (face of a building) · bcl patsada (face of a building) · fi prospekti (front of anything) · cmn 立面 (face of a building) · es fachada (face of a building) · hu felszín (deceptive outward appearance) · sl fasada (face of a building) · ja 正面 (face of a building) · sk fasáda (face of a building) · es frontis (face of a building) · nl gevel (face of a building) · fr façade (deceptive outward appearance) · el πρόσοψη (face of a building) · lt fasadas (face of a building) · wa divanteure (face of a building) · da facade (deceptive outward appearance) · pl front (front of anything) · pl fasada (deceptive outward appearance) · de Fassade (face of a building) · fi kulissi (deceptive outward appearance) · id muka bangunan (face of a building) · sh fasáda (face of a building) · eo fasado (face of a building) · ru ши́рма (deceptive outward appearance) · it facciata (face of a building) · tl dayag (face of a building) · sv fasad (deceptive outward appearance) · cmn 外立面 (face of a building) · et fassaad (face of a building) · mi kāinga kanohi (front of anything) · pl pozór (deceptive outward appearance) · io fasado (face of a building) · ca façana (face of a building) · hu látszat (deceptive outward appearance) · el πρόσοψη (deceptive outward appearance) · ko 정면 (face of a building) · ru фаса́д (face of a building) · hu oromzat (face of a building) · vec façada (face of a building) · hu külső (deceptive outward appearance) · be фаса́д (face of a building) · hu külcsín (deceptive outward appearance) · pl fasada (face of a building) · mi kāinga kanohi (deceptive outward appearance) · nrf côtchiéthe (face of a building) · es fachada (deceptive outward appearance) · el πρόσοψη (front of anything) · dsb fasada (face of a building) · pt fachada (deceptive outward appearance) · es frontispicio (face of a building) · lv fasāde (face of a building) · es frontispicio (front of anything) · hu máz (deceptive outward appearance) · ro fațadă (face of a building) · sv fasad (face of a building) · ko 파사드 (face of a building) · hu köntös (deceptive outward appearance) · mk фаса́да (face of a building) · tl karayagan (face of a building) · ca façana (deceptive outward appearance)

facade en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /fəˈsɑ(ː)d/
• (US) audio
• /fəˈseɪd/ (obsolete)

Etymology

Borrowed from French façade, from Italian facciata, a derivation of faccia (“front”), from Latin faciēs (“face”); compare face.

Meanings

1. (figuratively, rare, transitive) To cover or disguise an outward appearance.
   • Or he could go straight and walk right into the facility's open area where they facade their true scandals from the public eye. 2024, Noah Cecil, Unlasting:
   • The parks observed at the entrance, with their fountains and benches and circular drives, were no "Potemkin's villages" facading the lanscape for official visits. 1960, Press and Information Office, Embassy of the Republic of Viet-Nam, “The Agrovilles: A New Prospect In Viet Nam”, in News from Viet-Nam, volume 6, number 7, page 5:
   • Una was not happy in that small and self-immured company, already bound together by its big year on Broadway. But she façaded her unrest with a determination to improve her mind. 1943, Arthur Stringer, Star in a Mist, A Novel, page 180:
   • Susan's heart melts on hearing the word mom. She doesn't hear it enough. She facades her toughness, "You both are grounded. No more TV, or cycling, or anything else except for studies. Do you understand?" 2023, Lavina Chhabra, The Flawed Ink, page 45:
   • In his speech at Dacca, Curzon put forward his notorious plan of 'bifurcating Bengal' (as he preferred to call it), facading the communal overtones with the mask of good governance. 2020, Jaydip Sarkar, Rupayan Mukherjee (editors), Partition Literature and Cinema, A Critical Introduction:
   • I don't equate class clown with confidence. Most times, a person acting out like this (clowining) displays the opposite - someone who is insecure enough to be themself so they facade their true feelings via jokes, put downs, laughter, and plain old attention getting the wrong way. 2005 October 25, JimSummers, “Issue of confidence? Too simple”, in alt.support.shyness (Usenet):
   • Nancy is not that tired and exhausted, yet she facades her fatigue to escape from this silly revision of the concepts. 2021, Abhi, The BAG-G-AGE:
   • In fantasy he facades a happy childhood, but in reality it was extremely lonely, and it would appear that he had probably been breast fed through a pair of falsies. 1980, LA Law Library, California, Court of Appeal (1st Appellate District), Records and Briefs, 2CRIM40517, Petition for Writ, page 6:

Forms