as in to play
to pretend to be (what one is not) in appearance or behavior
likes to personate the man of the world, but he's still the small-town hick that he always was
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of personate
Till’s motifs swept though the ensemble, as horns, clarinets, bassoons, violin all had a chance to personate the character.
—
By Libby Hanssen, kansascity.com, 3 June 2017
By Libby Hanssen, kansascity.com, 3 June 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for personate
Verb
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Herro and Powell, who are the Heat’s two leading scorers this season, entered Tuesday with just 173 minutes played together this season.—
Anthony Chiang,
Miami Herald,
18 Mar. 2026
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Kings coach Doug Christie said Westbrook also ranks among the very best point guards to ever play the game.—
Jason Anderson,
Sacbee.com,
18 Mar. 2026
Verb
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So don't go off topic, don't impersonate anyone, and don't get your facts wrong.—
Damon Wise,
Deadline,
14 Mar. 2026
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He was wanted for impersonating a law enforcement officer and had claimed to be one while recruiting for his business that placed off-duty officers in security jobs, CBS News reported.—
Michael Dorgan,
FOXNews.com,
14 Mar. 2026
Verb
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And that is exactly why the fixation on recreating her look and imitating her to a T is so misguided.—
Tamim Alnuweiri,
InStyle,
15 Mar. 2026
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The indie movie, which runs a tight 1 hour and 21 minutes, is a perfect example of life imitating art — minus the murder.—
Emily Longeretta,
Variety,
14 Mar. 2026
Verb
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Quotas, speech codes and identity politics now mocked as woke and un-American, often defied common sense.—
Maurice O'Sullivan,
The Orlando Sentinel,
11 Mar. 2026
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This year, Glaser gently mocked Warner Bros, which was still up for sale, the Justice Department and CBS News, which had just been taken over by Bari Weiss, during the Globes ceremony on CBS.—
Peter White,
Deadline,
11 Mar. 2026
Verb
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Orbán, who is trailing in opinion polls ahead of elections next month, has leaned heavily on an election campaign that portrays Zelenskyy as an existential threat to Hungary.—
LORNE COOK THE ASSOCIATED PRESS,
Arkansas Online,
18 Mar. 2026
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Israeli leaders have portrayed the violence as the work of a tiny minority, but Palestinians and human rights groups say the Israeli army has done little to prevent the attacks and note that settlers are rarely held accountable.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
17 Mar. 2026
Verb
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The observations suggest that the dense dusty torus in NGC 6302 may act as a protective shield, allowing frozen carbon dioxide to survive despite the harsh radiation nearby.—
Rupendra Brahambhatt,
Interesting Engineering,
15 Mar. 2026
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Rodin gave up acting in his late teens, preferring to bury himself in books and music.—
Alex Ross,
New Yorker,
14 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Personate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/personate. Accessed 19 Mar. 2026.
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