copycat 1 of 2

as in imitator
a person who adopts the appearance or behavior of another especially in an obvious way every rock singer who makes it big soon has a whole cluster of copycats

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copycat

2 of 2

verb

1
2
as in to imitate
to use (someone or something) as the model for one's speech, mannerisms, or behavior a performer who slavishly copycats another never rises to the level of true stardom

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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 copycat
Noun
The league, of course, is full of copycats, meaning that opposing offenses will clearly try to capitalize on the Miami’s inability to stop the run. Miami Herald, 2 Oct. 2025 Survivor began this season by introducing its biggest character through his enthusiasm, his story, and a lighthearted copycat routine. Jason P. Frank, Vulture, 25 Sep. 2025
Verb
Park mentioned the case of the Boston Marathon Bomber, in which social media led to misidentification of suspects, and possibly to copycat cases. Michael M. Dewitt, USA TODAY, 29 Oct. 2021 Its new twist on phishing alerts, though, could give it and copycat criminal hackers one more edge in a fight that’s already unfair. Brian Barrett, Wired, 14 Oct. 2021 See All Example Sentences for copycat
Recent Examples of Synonyms for copycat
Noun
  • The oud that launched a thousand imitators, and still outclasses them all.
    Adam Hurly, Robb Report, 16 Oct. 2025
  • The goofy tree-imitator Pokémon, whose rock typing has come off as a prank since its early second generation introduction, finally fulfills its destiny as a grass type thanks to this new battling phenomenon.
    Jack Smart, PEOPLE, 10 Oct. 2025
Verb
  • The company maintains that its system analyzes music to learn compositional techniques, not to copy sounds verbatim.
    Robert Alexander, MSNBC Newsweek, 14 Oct. 2025
  • Users typed a url in the navigation bar, or typed a search query in that same space—a feature that Opera first pioneered but which was soon copied by Google—and the browser takes the user to that web address or a search results page, which displays a list of links.
    Beatrice Nolan, Fortune, 11 Oct. 2025
Verb
  • Some will welcome it; there is certainly an argument that the attempts to imitate Guardiola’s style, playing from the back against high-class opponents with a plan to press them into mistakes, led to some coaches leading their teams like lambs to the slaughter.
    Oliver Kay, New York Times, 16 Oct. 2025
  • In an instance of art imitating life, the film's soundtrack also achieved great success as the highest-debuting soundtrack of 2025 on the Billboard 200.
    Jessica Wang, Entertainment Weekly, 14 Oct. 2025
Noun
  • At this year's Upfront advertising presentations, some companies, including Amazon's Prime Video, noted the recent success of podcast content as creators sign multimillion dollar deals and garner millions of followers and views.
    Laya Neelakandan, CNBC, 14 Oct. 2025
  • Friedman, who has close to 8M followers on Instagram, is now launching his own talk show on YouTube.
    Peter White, Deadline, 14 Oct. 2025
Verb
  • The team used human stem cells to create three-dimensional, embryo-like structures that replicate early human development, including the formation of blood stem cells.
    Neetika Walter, Interesting Engineering, 14 Oct. 2025
  • Reports of individual genes that were purported to cause IQ differences (or personality traits or mental illness) failed to replicate over and over again.
    Eric Turkheimer, The Atlantic, 13 Oct. 2025
Verb
  • Bell remembers Allen borrowing her VHS tapes of Michael Jackson and trying to emulate his moves.
    Harriet Ramos, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 9 Oct. 2025
  • From past to present, Brandy remains a style icon worth emulating.
    Mecca Pryor, Essence, 9 Oct. 2025
Noun
  • Obama’s 2015 appearance is central to WTF’s mythology and to podcasting lore in general, so bringing him back provides a neat poetic echo to end the show.
    Nicholas Quah, Vulture, 15 Oct. 2025
  • Worries are particularly high about companies in the artificial-intelligence industry, where pessimists see echoes of the 2000 dot-com bubble that imploded.
    Jason Ma, Fortune, 13 Oct. 2025
Verb
  • Available in 9-karat and 18-karat yellow and white gold, the pendant and chevalier ring come with a cast kit to take the pet’s nose print, which is then reproduced on the jewels by the brand’s goldsmiths.
    Martino Carrera, Footwear News, 15 Oct. 2025
  • For example, being able to reproduce data and always staying open to new interpretations.
    Christopher McFadden, Interesting Engineering, 14 Oct. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Copycat.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/copycat. Accessed 19 Oct. 2025.

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