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
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
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
-
Pascal and Bad Bunny played the lothario's hot brothers.—
Raechal Shewfelt,
Entertainment Weekly,
1 Nov. 2025
-
The Heat entered Tuesday’s matchup against the Hornets having outscored opponents by a total of 46 points in the 29 minutes that the bench quartet of Fontecchio, Jaquez, Jovic and Smith played together through the first three games of the season.—
Anthony Chiang,
Miami Herald,
31 Oct. 2025
Verb
-
The experience of being impersonated led de Blasio to reflect on the need for stronger action around the safety risks of emerging technology.—
Jessica Coacci,
Fortune,
2 Nov. 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
Verb
-
Art imitating life a little bit.—
Senior Editor,
MSNBC Newsweek,
5 Nov. 2025
-
That work led to the Multisensory Correlation Detector (MCD), which could imitate human responses to simple audiovisual patterns like flashes and clicks.—
Aamir Khollam,
Interesting Engineering,
4 Nov. 2025
Verb
-
Spicer was voted out after eight weeks of mocking from social media and the show’s judges.—
Jackie Strause,
HollywoodReporter,
5 Nov. 2025
-
Brown said, mocking the press headlines.—
Zack Sharf,
Variety,
5 Nov. 2025
Verb
-
At first glance, Grace resembles the type of mothers who have become a dominant cinematic presence in recent years—women portrayed as troubled about being a caregiver.—
Shirley Li,
The Atlantic,
6 Nov. 2025
-
There’s no way to trick him into portraying the right levels of fear and anxiety and sadness.—
Ryan Lattanzio,
IndieWire,
6 Nov. 2025
Verb
-
Tax rises would likely act as another damper on inflation by reducing consumer demand.—
Holly Ellyatt,
CNBC,
6 Nov. 2025
-
What was concerning, Creech said, was how his son was acting while sick.—
Erika Edwards,
NBC news,
6 Nov. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Personate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/personate. Accessed 8 Nov. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share