Facade

How to spell facade

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce facade

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does facade mean?

1. nounThe principal exterior face or front of a building, especially the side facing a street.
2. nounA deceptive outward appearance that conceals a different reality.

Facade in a sentence

• The glass facade of the office block reflected the morning traffic.

• Behind a facade of calm she was deeply worried about the layoffs.

• Restoration work on the cathedral facade took nearly three years.

• The company's polished facade hid serious financial trouble.

Where does facade come from?

Language of origin: French

This word comes from the French facade, which the French had in turn borrowed from the Italian facciata, meaning the front or face of a building. The Italian word was built on faccia, 'face', which traces back to the Latin facies, meaning 'face, form, or outward appearance'. English adopted it in the middle of the 1600s, originally as a strictly architectural term for the principal exterior side of a structure. The figurative sense, a deceptive outward show that masks what lies behind, grew naturally out of that 'face you present to the street' idea. The spelling trap is the soft middle: the 'c' is pronounced like an 's', which is why the French often write it with a cedilla as facade with a hook under the c, and why English speakers are tempted to slip in an extra letter or double it.

How the word is built

• facad- (from Italian facciata: front, face)
• -e