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
-
The second season will conclude the story for Dream (played by Tom Sturridge), the show’s central character and part one will debut on July 3, with part two on July 24 with a special episode concluding things on July 31.—
Abid Rahman,
HollywoodReporter,
1 July 2025
-
Students were required to undertake certain extracurricular activities (Prevost was in the choir with Franks—both sing tenor—and played tennis) and to keep up their academic performance, but mostly the school’s focus was how to live in community.—
Belinda Luscombe,
Time,
1 July 2025
Verb
-
Why the latest PayPal phishing scam is so convincing Most phishing scams try (and fail) to impersonate big companies.—
Kurt Knutsson,
FOXNews.com,
28 June 2025
-
That’s because Scattered Spider has also been known to send fake SMS text messages impersonating login systems to phish employees.—
Michael Kan,
PC Magazine,
27 June 2025
Verb
-
But as these systems gained the ability to imitate reasoning, planning, and decision-making among options, emergent behaviors began raising red flags.—
Hamilton Mann,
Forbes.com,
29 June 2025
-
Some fireworks transcend the standard pops and booms to imitate a non-fiery object.—
Ethan Wolin,
Sacbee.com,
28 June 2025
Verb
-
And of course, that following Sunday, Oliver did indeed mock his corporate bosses for the move.—
Michael Schneider,
Variety,
8 July 2025
-
Many wanted Tiger to comment, but others chose to mock Williams.—
Devlina Sarkar,
MSNBC Newsweek,
5 July 2025
Verb
-
The latter has portrayed The Waitress — the object of Day's character Charlie Kelly's obsessive, unrequited love — in 37 episodes across 16 seasons of the long-running FX series.—
Erin Clack,
People.com,
6 July 2025
-
Kenneth Colley, the British actor who appeared in seven features for director Ken Russell and portrayed the Darth Vader underling Admiral Piett in the Star Wars films The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, has died.—
Mike Barnes,
HollywoodReporter,
4 July 2025
Verb
-
Even if borrowers act immediately, there simply may not be enough time to enroll in ICR.—
Adam S. Minsky,
Forbes.com,
28 June 2025
-
The actress, who broke through with her Oscar-winning performance in the 1990 film Misery, has over 200 acting and directing credits to her name.—
Brendan Le,
People.com,
28 June 2025
Cite this Entry
“Personate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/personate. Accessed 12 Jul. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share