1
as in mocking
to pretend to be (what one is not) in appearance or behavior
a school intruder was caught trying to impersonate a teacher
Synonyms & Similar Words
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2
as in playing
to present a portrayal or performance of
interpreters at the living history museum impersonate figures who are known to have actually lived in the colonial town
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of impersonating
Council members Bob Blumenfield and Eunisses Hernandez aim to maximize fines and fees for any individuals impersonating a federal, state or local law enforcement agent, as well as to ensure residents’ can rightfully request verifiable identification of masked, non-uniformed or unmarked individuals.
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City News Service, Daily News, 9 Jan. 2026
He was robbed by a man impersonating a police officer and testified as a key witness at the trial, according to a media reports.
—Nate Gartrell, Mercury News, 31 Dec. 2025
The lobster heist fits in the first type, which involves someone impersonating a legitimate trucking company.
—Fortune, 31 Dec. 2025
Dewey ends up impersonating Ned, going to teach at the school in his place.
—Kevin Jacobsen, Entertainment Weekly, 30 Dec. 2025
Drew Michael similarly mocked Jimmy Fallon’s emptiness in his 2021 special Red Blue Green by impersonating his ability to laugh at anything, and Hasan Minhaj impersonated Aziz Ansari’s cartoonishness in 2022’s The King’s Jester.
—Hershal Pandya, Vulture, 30 Dec. 2025
Rumors spread about the Malmedy and Stavelot murders, paratroopers behind enemy lines, and German soldiers impersonating Americans to seize bridges.
—Kapil Kajal, Interesting Engineering, 25 Dec. 2025
Someone started impersonating its sales rep by using a sneakily similar username.
—Sarah Zhang, The Atlantic, 23 Dec. 2025
From fake invoices to urgent messages impersonating company executives, phishing attacks are growing more personalized, more sophisticated—and more effective.
—Melissa Fleur Afshar, MSNBC Newsweek, 29 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for impersonating
Verb
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Ricky Gervais has hosted the Golden Globes five times, making Hollywood sweat with his take-no-prisoners approach to jokes mocking showbiz.—
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Now Sweeney, 75, is breaking his silence on a decades-long feud with Chevy Chase after Chase proposed Sweeney appear in an SNL sketch mocking the AIDS epidemic.—
Verb
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The teen was playing basketball at the park when he was approached by a group of young adults, who asked the teen if he was affiliated with a gang and tried to start a fight, police said.—
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Guys were playing hard, everybody on that drive was doing their job, and getting guys down on the ground.—
Verb
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James said while walking through the venue, imitating her excitement.—
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The people who are imitating Walter Cronkite don’t have his ethic.—
Verb
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The Venezuelan government has denied these allegations, portraying the agency as essential to defending national sovereignty against coups and foreign intervention.—
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He was best known for portraying Randy Benton on NBC's long-running Western The Virginian.—
Verb
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Inside, a lavish cocktail reception featured ice sculptures and live music by 35 musicians from the Philharmonic Orchestra of Puerto Rico, performing familiar compositions with a Latin twist.—
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Asked to select indicators that show how well a school is performing, most respondents pointed to student grade-level performance, student academic growth over time and graduation rates.—
Verb
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Culkin was just four years old when his acting career began.—
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In 2026, Elordi snagged two acting nominations at the Golden Globes, including Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture for his role in Frankenstein.—
Verb
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In a truly enormous space, over 100,000 square feet, that was once a Lord & Taylor department store, you are greeted with giant murals depicting Netflix shows on all sides.—
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Fantasy River is primarily blue, depicting a river and its banks filled with foliage as petals appear to fall from the sky.—
Verb
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This perspective reflects her broader philosophy that people are active participants in their own process, capable of interpreting their internal signals with guidance rather than direction.—
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But interpreting this statistic has become more complicated with the crackdown on immigrants.—
Cite this Entry
“Impersonating.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/impersonating. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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