Masque

Definition: Masque

Masque

Noun

1. A party of guests wearing costumes and masks.

Date "masque" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1595. (references)

Synonyms: Masque

Synonyms: mask (n), masquerade (n). (additional references)

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Specialty Definition: Masque

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

The masque was a form of entertainment which flourished in late 16th and early 17th century England, though developed earlier in Italy. It involved dancing, acting, music and usually elaborate stage design. It was usually performed by amateurs.

The masque has its origins in a folk tradition where masked players would unexpectedly call on noblemen's houses danicng and bringing gifts on certain nights of the year. Spectators were invited to join in the dancing. At the end, the players would take off their masks to reveal their identities.

Later, in the court of James I of England, narrative elements of the masque became more significant. Plots were often on classical or allegorical themes, and were usually acted out by amateurs. At the end, the audience would join in a final dance. Ben Jonson wrote a number of masques with stage design by Inigo Jones. Their works are usually thought of as the most significant in the form. Sir Philip Sidney also wrote masques.

Shakespeare wrote a masque-like interlude in The Tempest. There is also a masque sequence in his Henry VIII. John Milton's Comus (with music by Henry Lawes) is described as a masque, though is generally reckoned as a pastoral play.

The part-opera which developed in the latter part of the 17th century and in which form John Dryden and Henry Purcell collaborated, is somewhat related to the masque. In the 20th century, Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote Job: A Masque for Dancing, although the work is closer to a ballet than a masque as it was originally understood. His designating it a masque was to indicate that choreography typical when he wrote the piece would not be suitable.

Constant Lambert also wrote a piece he called a masque, Summers Last Will and Testament.

The word masque is sometimes also used to mean a masquerade ball.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Masque."

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Synonyms within Context: Masque

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Amusement	Dance; hop, reel, rigadoon, saraband, hornpipe, bolero, ballroom dance; minuet, waltz, polka, fox trot, tango, samba, rhumba, twist, stroll, hustle, cha-cha; fandango, cancan; bayadere; breakdown, cake-walk, cornwallis, break dancing; nautch-girl; shindig; skirtdance, stag dance, Virginia reel, square dance; galop, galopade; jig, Irish jig, fling, strathspey; allemande; gavot, gavotte, tarantella; mazurka, morisco, morris dance; quadrille; country dance, folk dance; cotillon, Sir Roger de Coverley; ballet; (drama); ball; bal, bal masque, bal costume; masquerade; Terpsichore.
The Drama	Play, drama, stage play, piece, five-act play, tragedy, comedy, opera, vaudeville, comedietta, lever de rideau, interlude, afterpiece, exode, farce, divertissement, extravaganza, burletta, harlequinade, pantomime, burlesque, opera bouffe, ballet, spectacle, masque, drame comedie drame; melodrama, melodrame; comidie larmoyante, sensation drama; tragicomedy, farcical-comedy; monodrame monologue;duologue trilogy; charade, proverbs; mystery, miracle play; musical, musical comedy.
	Mummer, guiser, guisard, gysart , masque.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

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Crosswords: Masque

English words defined with "masque": Disguising. (references)

Specialty definitions using "masque": Hatton. (references)

Non-English Usage: "Masque" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses.

French (blind, disguise, mask), Italian (masque).

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Modern Usage: Masque

Domain

Usage

Movie/TV Titles

Beau masque (1972)

The Masque of the Red Death (1964)

Le Masque de fer (1962)

The Masque Rade (1937)

Le Masque qui tombe (1933)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Commercial Usage: Masque

Domain	Title
Books	Alice's Masque (reference) Dragon Waiting: A Masque of History (reference) Edgar Allan Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death": A Study Guide from Gale's "Short Stories for Students" [DOWNLOAD: PDF] (reference) Masque (reference) Masque of Betrayal (reference) (more book examples)

Theater & Movies	Doctor Who - The Masque of Mandragora (reference) Masque of the Red Death (reference) (more DVD examples; more video examples)

Music	Masque [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED] (reference) (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)

High Tech	MASQUE Solitaire Antics Deluxe (Windows & Macintosh) (reference) MASQUE 10 Tons Of Fun For Macintosh (reference) (more camera examples; more video game examples; more computer examples; more electronic examples; more software examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Photo Album: Masque

Thumbnail	Description & Credit	Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	Scene from Sanctuary, a bird masque, by Percy MacKaye.Credit: Library of Congress.		Witter Bynner as Stark the plume hunter, a character from Percy MacKaye's Sanctuary: a bird masque.Credit: Library of Congress.
	Herbert Adams and Arvia MacKaye as Cardinal Bird and Hummingbird, characters from Percy MacKaye's Sanctuary: a bird masque.Credit: Library of Congress.		Hazel MacKaye, seated with an open copy of her husband Percy MacKaye's Sanctuary: a bird masque, on her lap.Credit: Library of Congress.
	Cremalda window at Palais Royal store. Magic masque display I.Credit: Library of Congress.		The roll call, a masque of the Red Cross, by Percy MacKaye / Arnold Genthe.Credit: Library of Congress.
	La Réforme, le 21 Novembre, le masque anarchiste.Credit: Library of Congress.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Usage Frequency: Masque

"Masque" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 96.23% of the time. "Masque" is used about 53 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Noun (singular)	96.23%	51	47,619
Noun (proper)	3.77%	2	245,945
Total	100.00%	53	N/A

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: Masque

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Expression	Frequency per Day	Expression	Frequency per Day
masque	106	masque publishing	9
masque of the red death	68	gel masque	8
masque slot	33	masque treatment	8
facial masque	16	algae masque	8
africain masque	11	kiehls rare earth face masque	8
face masque	10	dry masque skin	8
facial kiehls masque	10	face kiehls masque	8
facial invisible kiehls masque	10	death masque red summary	8
facial invisible masque	10	dry masque skin very	8
gel kiehls masque	10	masque miss	7
dry kiehls masque skin very	10	game masque	7
algae kiehls masque	10	gaz masque	7
face keihls masque	10	masque world series of poker	7
dry kiehls masque skin	10	animaux d masque	6
day kiehls masque treatment	10	masque review slot	4
masque moisturizing	10	masque pro	4
day masque treatment	10	free masque slot	4
kiehls masque treatment	10	allan death edgar masque poe red	3
gel kiehls masque soothing	9	beaute de masque	3
imperiale kiehls masque moisturizing repairateur	9	de grossesse masque	3
gel masque soothing	9	masque software	3
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Modern Translations: Masque

Language		Translations for "masque"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		shfaqje dramatike me maska. (various references)

Bulgarian		вид поетична музикална драма. (various references)

Czech		maska (disguise, guise, hood, mask, radiator grill, screen, veil, visor). (various references)

German		Maskenspiel (Masquerade). (various references)

Greek		μόσχοσ (calf, civet, musk), μάσκα (bows, face mask, mask, masking, stern X, surgical mask), προσωπίδα (anaesthetic face mask, anaesthetic mask, anesthetic face mask, anesthetic mask, face mask, mask, visor, vizor), άρωμα (aroma, flavoring, flavouring, fragrance, perfume, redolence, savor, savour, scent, spice, spiciness). (various references)

Hebrew		� שף מסכות. (various references)

Hungarian		látványos zenés játék, álcajáték. (various references)

Italian		masque. (various references)

Japanese Kanji		仮面劇 . (various references)

Japanese Katakana		かめ�"�'き. (various references)

Manx		far-eddin cloie. (various references)

Pig Latin		asquemay

Portuguese		obra de pedreiro (brickwork). (various references)

Russian		театр масок. (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		maska (mask, vizard). (various references)

Spanish		mascarada (Masquerade, Mummery). (various references)

Swedish		maskspel. (various references)

Turkish		maskeli piyes. (various references)

Ukranian		театр масок. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

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Derivations & Misspellings: Masque

Derivations
	Words beginning with "masque": masquer, masquerade, masqueraded, masquerader, masqueraders, masquerades, masquerading, masquers, masques. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Masque" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: asque, atque, Fasquel, Maasum, Macpuke, Macque, Maqsood, Maqsud, maque, Maquio, marque, Masdus, Maska, Maskel, masou, masq, masqu, masqued, masquer, masu, Mas'ud, Masum, Mazoud, Mazrui, meaasge, misque, mosqueg, Mosquin, Musque, Naquen, Pasqual, pasque, pasquil. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Rhyming with "Masque"

Words ending with "asque": Casque, Pasque. (additional references)

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Anagrams: Masque

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-e-m-q-s-u"
	-1 letter: amuse.
	-2 letters: amus, emus, maes, mesa, muse, same, seam.
	-3 letters: amu, eau, ems, emu, mae, mas, mus, qua, sae, sau, sea, sue, sum, suq, use.
	-4 letters: ae, am, as, em, es, ma, me, mu, um, us.
	Words containing the letters "a-e-m-q-s-u"
	+1 letter: marques, masquer, masques, squamae.
	+2 letters: macaques, marquees, marquess, marquise, masquers, squamate, squamose.
	+3 letters: maquettes, marquises, quagmires, qualmiest, quamashes, ramequins, remarques, squeamish.
	+4 letters: desquamate, mannequins, marquesses, marquisate, masquerade, moonquakes, musquashes, quizmaster, semiopaque, semiquaver, squamulose.
	+5 letters: aquamarines, desquamated, desquamates, lambrequins, maquillages, marquessate, marquetries, marquisates, marquisette, masqueraded, masquerader, masquerades, metasequoia, microquakes, milquetoast, quagmiriest, quarrelsome, quizmasters, semiaquatic, semiquavers, squeamishly.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.