FACADE

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does facade mean? 

• FACADE (noun)
  The noun FACADE has 2 senses:

1. the face or front of a building

2. a showy misrepresentation intended to conceal something unpleasant

  Familiarity information: FACADE used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FACADE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The face or front of a building

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

facade; frontage; frontal

Hypernyms ("facade" is a kind of...):

front (the side that is seen or that goes first)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "facade"):

frontispiece (an ornamental facade)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A showy misrepresentation intended to conceal something unpleasant

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

facade; window dressing

Hypernyms ("facade" is a kind of...):

deceit; deception; misrepresentation (a misleading falsehood)

 Context examples 

I like Thornfield, its antiquity, its retirement, its old crow-trees and thorn-trees, its grey facade, and lines of dark windows reflecting that metal welkin: and yet how long have I abhorred the very thought of it, shunned it like a great plague-house?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

We passed a barrier of dark trees, and then the facade of Fifty-ninth Street, a block of delicate pale light, beamed down into the park.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)