CHARADE, a kind of riddle, probably invented in France during the 18th century, in which a word of two or more syllables is divined by guessing and combining into one word (the answer) the different syllables, each of which is described, as an inde pendent word, by the giver of the charade. Charades may be either in prose or verse. Of poetic charades those by W. Mack worth Praed are well known and excellent examples, while the following is a good specimen in prose. "My first is company; my second shuns company; my third collects company; and my whole amuses company." The solution is Co-nun-drum. The most popular form of this amusement is the acted charade, in which the meaning of the different syllables is acted out on the stage, the audience being left to guess each syllable and thus, combining the meaning of all the syllables, the whole word. A brilliant description of the acted charade is given in Thackeray's Vanity Fair.