impersonate

verb

im·​per·​son·​ate im-ˈpər-sə-ˌnāt 

impersonated; impersonating

transitive verb

: to assume or act the character of : personate

impersonating a police officer

impersonation

im-ˌpər-sə-ˈnā-shən 

noun

Synonyms of impersonate

• imitate
• mock
• play
• portray
• personate
• pose (as)
• masquerade (as)

Examples of impersonate in a Sentence

He was arrested for impersonating a police officer.

a comedian with a talent for impersonating famous politicians and actors

Recent Examples on the Web

In one scene, Simpson put on a prosthetic nose and a face of white makeup to impersonate an elderly, white man eager to call the numbers at a bingo game. — Kalia Richardson, USA Today, 9 Sep. 2026

Those reports can help Amazon identify developing scam campaigns and bad actors impersonating the company. — Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 9 Sep. 2026

The agents also allegedly impersonated a moderator on the wiki, using an identical Cyrillic е character in the admin's username instead of the Latin one. — Will McCurdy, PC Magazine, 6 Sep. 2026

An attacker using a cloned voice to impersonate an executive on a call to the help desk isn’t defeated by a Zero Trust slide deck. — Michael Flannery, Forbes.com, 4 Sep. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1715, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for impersonate

• abbreviate
• accelerate
• accommodate
• accumulate
• acuminate
• adjudicate
• adulterate
• affiliate
• agglomerate
• agglutinate
• alleviate
• amalgamate

Kids Definition

impersonate

verb

im·​per·​son·​ate im-ˈpərs-ᵊn-ˌāt 

impersonated; impersonating

: to pretend to be some other person

impersonate a police officer

impersonation

-ˌpərs-ᵊn-ˈā-shən

noun

impersonator

-ˈpərs-ᵊn-ˌāt-ər

noun

Legal Definition

impersonate

transitive verb

im·​per·​son·​ate im-ˈpər-sə-ˌnāt 

impersonated; impersonating

: to assume (another's or a fictitious identity) without authority and with fraudulent intent

impersonate a police officer

impersonated a public servant by saying he was from the water department

impersonator

-ˌnā-tər 

noun