The facade meaning has two layers: first, the facade is the front wall of a building, the side that faces the street; second, a facade is a false outward appearance that hides how things or people really are. A friend who smiles all evening while feeling miserable is keeping up a facade.
The second sense grew naturally from the first, since a grand front wall can hide a plain or broken building behind it. Below you will find the facade definition in both senses, the spelling with the curly c, the pronunciation and real examples.
Entry at a glance
Meaning
1. The front of a building. 2. A false outward showPart of speech
Noun (plural: facades)Pronunciation
fuh-SAHD; the c sounds like sSpelling
facade or façade (with a cedilla)Origin
French façade, from Italian facciata, from faccia (face); in English from the 1650sClose words
front, mask, veneer, pretense, exteriorRegister
Neutral; architecture and everyday speech
Define facade: the two senses
- Architecture. The main front of a building, often the most decorated side. The library's stone facade was cleaned for its centenary. Architects may also speak of the side or rear facade, meaning any outer face of the building.
- Behavior and appearances. A show put on to hide real feelings, motives or facts. Behind her cheerful facade, she was exhausted. It can also describe a group or system: a facade of democracy, a facade of normal business.
The figurative sense is the more common one in daily talk, and English writers were using it by the 1840s.
Facade meaning in everyday sentences
- Every evening the lights on the hotel facade change color.
- He kept up a calm facade during the interview, but his knees were shaking.
- The shop was a facade for a gambling den at the back, police said.
- After the breakup, her bright posts online were only a facade.
- The old cinema was demolished, but the city made the builders keep its art deco facade.
Your coworker says "I'm totally fine" every time you ask, yet he skips lunch, snaps at small things and stays late every night. His cheerful words are a facade. The word fits because there is a clear gap between the face he shows and what is going on inside.
Spelling and pronunciation
The word comes from French, where it is written façade. The mark under the c is a cedilla, and it tells you the c is soft, like s. English writers often drop the mark and write facade; both spellings are correct.
Say it fuh-SAHD, stressing the second syllable. A common mistake is to read it as "fah-kayd" or "fay-kade", because without the cedilla the c looks hard. Remember the link to face: the word literally means the face of a building.
Facade vs veneer vs front
| Word | Literal sense | Figurative sense |
|---|---|---|
| Facade | Front wall of a building | A whole false appearance hiding the truth |
| Veneer | Thin layer of fine wood glued over cheaper wood | A thin surface quality, like a veneer of politeness |
| Front | The forward part of anything | A business used to hide crime, or a brave face |
| Mask | A face cover | Hiding feelings, often deliberately |
Veneer stresses thinness; facade stresses a show for others to see. A facade is usually maintained on purpose, while a veneer may simply wear off. Words like authentic describe the opposite: no gap between surface and substance.
Common pairings
- keep up, maintain or put up a facade: keep pretending
- behind the facade: what lies underneath
- the facade cracks, slips or crumbles: the truth starts to show
- a facade of calm, normality, respectability
- glass, stone, brick, ornate or listed facade: building descriptions
Note that the figurative sense is often negative. It suggests pretense, and sometimes hypocrisy or vanity, though a facade can also be a sad, self-protective thing, as when someone hides grief.
From Italian face to English front
English writers took up facade in the 1650s, borrowing French façade, which came from Italian facciata, the front of a building. The Italian word is built on faccia, meaning face, which goes back to Latin. So the image has always been a face: the side of a building that greets you, and later the face people choose to show. Similar words about looks and reality sit in the everyday vocabulary list, too.
Frequently asked questions
What does facade mean if someone is "putting one up"?
Here it is a false appearance shown to hide real feelings or intentions. Someone who seems happy but is secretly struggling may be putting up a facade.
Is facade a negative word?
In its building sense it is neutral. In its figurative sense it is usually negative, because it suggests pretending, although people often keep up a facade to protect themselves rather than to fool others.
How do you pronounce facade?
Say fuh-SAHD. The c is soft, like the s in sad, because the French spelling uses a cedilla.
Is it facade or façade?
Both are correct in English. Façade keeps the French cedilla; facade is the simpler, very common form.
What is the plural of facade?
The plural is facades, or façades with the cedilla. For example, the facades of the old houses were painted blue and white.
What would be the opposite of a facade?
In the figurative sense, the opposite is genuineness or authenticity: being the same inside as you appear outside. In the building sense, the rear or the interior is the contrast.