Definition of wannabe
1 : a person who wants or aspires to be someone or something else or who tries to look or act like someone else
2 : something (such as a company, city, or product) intended to rival another of its kind that has been successful; especially : one for which hopes have failed or are likely to fail
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Examples of wannabe in a Sentence
an entrepreneur who seems to have made his fortune mainly by giving how-to-get-rich lectures to entrepreneurial wannabes
Recent Examples of wannabe from the Web
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For what's probably hundreds of thousands of musicians and musician wannabes, Chuck Berry was the guy who started it all.
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Thirteen years ago, Ferrara was still just a wannabe in the sport, a 27-year-old bruiser with but a handful of junior and minor league games on his résumé.
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Every cinephile and spy wannabe has pondered the immortal question: Who's the one, true James Bond?
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In addition to solo albums by the Buena Vista artists, the market became flooded with vintage Cuban music and Buena Vista wannabes.
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Among the visitors during the recording were some earnest young wannabes who called themselves Pink Floyd.
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Murderous psycho and wannabe musician Charles Manson has released a record under a Creative Commons license, according to the LimeWire Music Blog.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'wannabe'. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Origin and Etymology of wannabe
from the phrase want to be
WANNABE Defined for English Language Learners
wannabe
playDefinition of wannabe for English Language Learners
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: a person who tries to look or act like someone else (such as a famous person) : a person who wants to be a particular person or type of person
Learn More about wannabe
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See words that rhyme with wannabe Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for wannabe Spanish Central: Translation of wannabe Nglish: Translation of wannabe for Spanish speakers Britannica English: Translation of wannabe for Arabic speakers
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