an act or event that is obviously false, although represented as true: From the beginning we knew who would get the job – the interviews were just a charade. (Definition of charade from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

an act or event that is clearly false: Everyone knew who was going to get the job from the start - the interviews were just a charade.

noun /ʃəˈrɑːd/ /ʃəˈreɪd/ [countable] a situation in which people pretend that something is true when it clearly is not synonym pretence Their whole marriage had been a charade—they had never loved each other. charade of (doing) something We had to go through this whole charade of holding auditions for the part.

charade /ʃə ˈ reɪd/ Brit /ʃə ˈ rɑːd/ noun plural charades Britannica Dictionary definition of CHARADE 1 [count] : something that is done in order to pretend something is true when it is not really true Her concern was just a charade. [=she pretended to be concerned but she was not]

charades plural : a game in which some of the players try to guess a word or phrase from the actions of another player who may not speak