Mask or masque?
mask is a noun meaning “A cover, or partial cover, for the face, used for disguise or protection”; masque is a noun meaning “A dramatic performance, often performed at court as a royal entertainment…”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) mask is about 49 times as common as masque.
What is the difference between mask and masque?
| mask | masque | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, verb | noun |
| Meaning | A cover, or partial cover, for the face, used for disguise or protection That which disguises; a pretext or subterfuge To cover (the face or something else), in order to conceal the identity or protect against injury; to cover with a mask or visor | A dramatic performance, often performed at court as a royal entertainment, consisting of dancing, dialogue, pantomime and song Words and music written for a masque |
| Example | a dancer's mask; a fencer's mask; a ball player's mask | mud masque; clay masque |
| Forms | masks | masques |
| Pronunciation | /mɑːsk/ /mask/ | /mæsk/ /mɑːsk/ /mask/ |
| In writing | 20 times per million words | about once in every 2 million words |
Sources: mask and masque in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of mask and masque
mask
- 1
A cover, or partial cover, for the face, used for disguise or protection
a dancer's mask; a fencer's mask; a ball player's mask
- 2
To cover (the face or something else), in order to conceal the identity or protect against injury; to cover with a mask or visor
- 3
Mesh
- 4
UKMash
- 5
UKTo mash
- 6
UKTo bewilder; confuse
- 7
That which disguises; a pretext or subterfuge
- 8
To disguise as something else
masque
- 1
A dramatic performance, often performed at court as a royal entertainment, consisting of dancing, dialogue, pantomime and song
- 2
Words and music written for a masque
- 3
A masquerade
- 4
A facial mask
mud masque; clay masque
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, mask or masque?
mask appears 20 times per million words; masque about once in every 2 million words.
mask 20 times per million wordsmasque about once in every 2 million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search mask vs masque?
“mask vs masque” is searched about 90 times a month on Google and 20 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“masque vs mask”, “mask or masque”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.