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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

travesty.

An absurd, grotesque, misrepresentative or grossly inferior likeness or imitation.

8 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈtɹæv.ɪs.ti//ˈtɹæv.əs.ti/
  1. An absurd, grotesque, misrepresentative or grossly inferior likeness or imitation.

    A battlefield trial is a travesty of justice.
  2. A pastiche, parody, or stylistic imitation; a burlesque literary or artistic imitation (typically of a more serious work).

  3. An appalling event, situation or outcome (especially in relation to another outcome to which it is grossly inferior).

    proscribed · sometimes
Where this word comes from

From French travesti (“disguised, burlesqued”), past participle of travestir (“to disguise”), borrowed from Italian travestire (“to dress up, disguise”), from tra- (“across”) + vestire (“to dress”), from Latin vestiō (“to clothe, dress”), from Proto-Italic *westis (“clothing”), from Proto-Indo-European *wéstis (“dressing”) from verbal root *wes- (“to dress, clothe”); cognate to English wear. Doublet of travesti.

verb/ˈtɹæv.ɪs.ti//ˈtɹæv.əs.ti/
  1. To make a travesty of; to parody.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

From French travesti (“disguised, burlesqued”), past participle of travestir (“to disguise”), borrowed from Italian travestire (“to dress up, disguise”), from tra- (“across”) + vestire (“to dress”), from Latin vestiō (“to clothe, dress”), from Proto-Italic *westis (“clothing”), from Proto-Indo-European *wéstis (“dressing”) from verbal root *wes- (“to dress, clothe”); cognate to English wear. Doublet of travesti.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.