Wiktionary:Word of the day/2020/October 9

1. An assembly or party of people wearing (usually elaborate or fanciful) masks and costumes, and amusing themselves with dancing, conversation, or other diversions.
2. The act of wearing a mask or dressing up in a costume for, or as if for, a masquerade ball.
3. (figuratively) An act of living under false pretenses; a concealment of something by a false or unreal show; a disguise, a pretence; also, a pretentious display.
4. (figuratively) An assembly of varied, often fanciful, things.
5. (fandom slang) A cosplay event at which costumed attendees perform skits.
6. (obsolete) A dramatic performance by actors in masks; a mask or masque.
7. (obsolete, rare) A Spanish entertainment or military exercise in which squadrons of horses charge at each other, the riders fighting with bucklers and canes.

masquerade v

1. (intransitive) To take part in a masquerade; to assemble in masks and costumes; (loosely) to wear a disguise.
2. (intransitive, figuratively) To pass off as a different person or a person with qualities that one does not possess; also, to make a pretentious show of being what one is not.
3. (transitive, rare) To conceal (something) with, or as if with, a mask; to disguise.

“Masquerade” is a song in Act II of the musical The Phantom of the Opera, which premiered on this day in London in 1986.