facade

Etymology

From French façade, from Italian facciata, a derivation of faccia (“front”), from Latin faciēs (“face”); compare face.

noun

1. (architecture) The face of a building, especially the front view or elevation.
   In Egypt the façades of their rock-cut tombs were[…]ornamented so simply and unobtrusively as rather to belie than to announce their internal magnificence. 1865, James Fergusson, A History of Architecture in All Countries
   Like so many of the finest churches, [the cathedral of Siena] was furnished with a plain substantial front wall, intended to serve as the backing and support of an ornamental façade. 1880, Charles Eliot Norton, Historical Studies of Church-Building in the Middle Ages
   Eight or so gunmen stood shoulder to shoulder in the gray-white trail before the barn, firing into the saloon's burning, bullet-pocked facade. 2005, Peter Brandvold, “Ghost Colts”, in Robert J. Randisi, editor, Lone Star Law, Simon and Schuster, page 179
2. (by extension) The face or front (most visible side) of any other thing, such as an organ.
3. (figurative) A deceptive or insincere outward appearance.
4. (programming) An object serving as a simplified interface to a larger body of code, as in the facade pattern.
   Facades are widely used for tasks like simplifying complex APIs. 2017, Evan Burchard, Refactoring JavaScript: Turning Bad Code Into Good Code, O'Reilly Media, page 311