wannabe

noun

wan·​na·​be ˈwä-nə-ˌbē 

variants or less commonly wannabee

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

Synonyms of wannabe

• follower
• imitator
• echo

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 on the Web

Kelly spends the first half of his book running through a who’s who of the New England underworld, gangsters and mob wannabes who likely came into contact with the art before the investigation reached Maine and Gentile. —Edmund H. Mahony, Hartford Courant, 22 Mar. 2026

All the young, single Carolyn Bessette wannabes were vying for his attention. —Richard Johnson, New York Daily News, 22 Mar. 2026

Young courtesan wannabe Gigi (Leslie Caron) and Parisian playboy Gaston (Louis Jourdan) see each other as just friends, until romance intercedes in the musical confection. —Brian Truitt, USA Today, 12 Mar. 2026

Plenty of Kennedy wannabes showed up too late to compete, like brothers Denny and Enny—models, actors, and content creators who are originally from Montenegro and now live in Williamsburg. —Chris Murphy, Vanity Fair, 9 Mar. 2026

Word History

Etymology

from the phrase want to be

First Known Use

1976, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for wannabe

• agree
• allee
• banshee
• beastly
• bibi
• bowsprit
• carefree
• cerci
• chablis
• cowpea
• crappie
• crappy