Meaning & use

masque

noun·Advanced

A festive entertainment popular among European nobility in the 16th and 17th centuries, combining music, dance, elaborate costume, and drama.

See it in a sentence

The royal court staged an elaborate masque to celebrate the wedding.

Playwrights of the era sometimes wrote masques specifically for court performances.

A note on using this word

Masque, an archaic form related to mask, should not be confused with the everyday face covering; it survives mainly in historical and literary contexts.

Words with a similar meaning

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