Facade Meaning
/fəˈsɑːd/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounThe face of a building, especially the front view or elevation.
nounThe face or front (most visible side) of any other thing, such as the prospect of an organ.
Sentence Examples
They will have placed the billboard on that building's facade before July ends.
The magician's use of smoke and mirrors was an elaborate facade.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
None
CEFR Practice Quiz
The crumbling ____ of the old building hid a beautifully renovated interior.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Behind her ____ of confidence, she was actually very nervous about the upcoming interview.
Word Origin & History
Borrowed from French façade, from Italian facciata, a derivation of faccia (“front”), from Latin faciēs (“face”); compare face.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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:
"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:
"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:
"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:
"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:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The crumbling ____ of the old building hid a beautifully renovated interior.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Behind her ____ of confidence, she was actually very nervous about the upcoming interview.