Synonyms of mountebank

mountebank

noun

ˈmau̇n-ti-ˌbaŋk 

as in fraud

one who makes false claims of identity or expertise

claimed that many doctors were frauds and mountebanks

Synonyms & Similar Words

• fraud
• sham
• pretender
• charlatan
• fake
• deceiver
• quack
• impostor
• misleader
• faker
• actor
• fakir
• phony
• operator
• counterfeiter
• hoaxer
• humbug
• ringer
• dissembler
• sharper
• quacksalver
• imitator
• trickster
• impersonator
• swindler
• poseur
• copycat
• skinner
• mimic
• bluffer
• duper
• defrauder
• dodger
• fraudster
• scammer
• feigner
• cozener
• scamster
• sharpie

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• master
• expert
• virtuoso
• wizard
• professional
• authority
• maestro
• ace
• whiz
• adept
• past master
• crackerjack

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of mountebank

Good afternoon and welcome to Con Con, the convention for swindlers, mountebanks, and the people who love them. — Henry Alford, New Yorker, 1 Dec. 2025

Godard might have come across as a species of poseur – a pretentious, quote-spouting mountebank – but his way of seeing was genuinely new. — Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor, 13 Nov. 2025

Gould observed that Jerry Falwell had taken up the mountebank’s mission of William Jennings Bryan. — Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 26 July 2024

Now, this pallid Color Purple epitomizes the artistic dearth of an era when a cultural mountebank like Winfrey uses race and feminist guile to cheat us of America’s most creative achievements. — Armond White, National Review, 3 Jan. 2024

The alternative circumstance, that crackpots and mountebanks might claim such evidence exists, then fail to produce any, is, on the other hand, entirely plausible and familiar. — Timothy Noah, The New Republic, 31 July 2023

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