The word masquerade has a number of meanings:

• A masquerade ball is a ball, dance, or party; in which, participants wear elaborate costumes and hide their true identity.
• "The Masquerade " is a fictional term, from White Wolf Game Studio's Vampire: The Masquerade; describing the efforts of the vampiric Camarilla to hide from humanity. This practice was begun during the 15th Century, in response to the Inquisition. Vampire: The Requiem has a similar practice, the Dance Macabre.
• Masquerade is a book written by Kit Williams
• Masquerade is a band who had a minor hit in 1984 with the song "Guardian Angel"
• IP Masquerade, called "IPMASQ" or "MASQ" for short, is a form of Network address translation (NAT) which allows internally connected computers that do not have one or more registered Internet IP addresses to communicate to the Internet via the Linux server's Internet IP address.
• Masquerade (song) , from the Musical "The Phantom of the Opera (1986 musical)"
• Masquerade as applied to a Science fiction convention is a staged fromal event similar to a costume fashion show where individuals walk onto stage and perform a skit or strike a dramatic pose in a contest for awards for costume construction and presentation. Sometimes also called a costume call or cosplay.