1
as in to emulate
to use (someone or something) as the model for one's speech, mannerisms, or behavior
teenage musicians who imitate whichever rock stars are hot
Synonyms & Similar Words
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2
as in to parody
to copy or exaggerate (someone or something) in order to make fun of
imitating someone's stutter and laughing at them is a cruel thing to do
Synonyms & Similar Words
3
as in to reproduce
to make an exact likeness of
a second-rate artist who was notorious for imitating the works of other painters
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of imitate
This provides my son with an opportunity to imitate me verbally and gesturally.
—
Hannah Nwoko, Parents, 20 Oct. 2025
How does this help democracy, imitating what Texas is doing?
—Martha McHardy, MSNBC Newsweek, 18 Oct. 2025
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
One look at the Unitree Robotics YouTube channel tells you how the company is focused on training the G1 humanoid to perform actions and imitate humans.
—Atharva Gosavi, Interesting Engineering, 14 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for imitate
Hannah Nwoko, Parents, 20 Oct. 2025
How does this help democracy, imitating what Texas is doing?
—Martha McHardy, MSNBC Newsweek, 18 Oct. 2025
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
One look at the Unitree Robotics YouTube channel tells you how the company is focused on training the G1 humanoid to perform actions and imitate humans.
—Atharva Gosavi, Interesting Engineering, 14 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for imitate
Recent Examples of Synonyms for imitate
Verb
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As more service members reenter civilian life, cities may look to emulate the models of top performers.—
Jordan King,
MSNBC Newsweek,
4 Nov. 2025
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Because social media offers a sense of community, Kiser's platform may emulate an experience similar to that of group therapy, Aldad said.—
Melina Khan,
USA Today,
3 Nov. 2025
Verb
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This Halloween, the two-time Emmy Award-winning host is paying tribute to scary singles by parodying popular television dating shows of the past — and dressing as their male hosts.—
Lex Goldstein,
PEOPLE,
31 Oct. 2025
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Newsom has been trying to raise his national profile, adopting a combative style that parodies Trump’s social media strategy with similar all-caps posts, memes and merchandise.—
Adriana Gomez Licon,
Fortune,
26 Oct. 2025
Verb
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All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means.—
Lizz Schumer,
PEOPLE,
29 Oct. 2025
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To recreate an extinct species exactly, evolution would have to reproduce not just its traits but its entire genetic code — an impossibly specific combination.—
Big Think,
Big Think,
29 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Yet Fulton County officials have still insisted the ballots could not be copied or released.—
Kaelan Deese,
The Washington Examiner,
4 Nov. 2025
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Promoter sequences are short stretches of DNA that tell the cell’s copying machinery where a new protein starts.—
Brenda Goodman,
CNN Money,
4 Nov. 2025
Verb
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Such is the brilliance of Wes Craven’s self-aware spin on serial-killer tropes, which manages to both mock a generation of teenagers raised on the campy likes of Friday the 13th and deliver honest scares in its own right.—
The Atlantic Culture Desk,
The Atlantic,
29 Oct. 2025
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Following the no-contest between Aspinall and Ciryl Gane, Jones mocked the injured champion with a silent but hilarious move on social media that quickly garnered attention.—
MSNBC Newsweek,
MSNBC Newsweek,
26 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Given chances to replicate his pivots toward moderation on subjects like Wall Street, housing, and policing, Mamdani did not bend on the Middle East.—
Philip Elliott,
Time,
5 Nov. 2025
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In a similar vein, Timnit Gebru, a computer scientist writing during her time working at Google, warned of the dangers of large language models acting as stochastic parrots, which repeat language patterns without understanding, and in doing so replicate the biases embedded in their training data.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
5 Nov. 2025
Verb
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Their language mimics the essence of things, evocations of items and experiences.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
3 Nov. 2025
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Crucially, the scientists mimicked this process by creating an artificial neural network, and by applying a simple algorithm called gradient descent to increase the accuracy of its predictions.—
James Somers,
New Yorker,
3 Nov. 2025
Verb
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The company is also the only rubber manufacturer that can do full color digital printing on rubber, Hitt said.—
Sydney Sasser,
Arkansas Online,
30 Oct. 2025
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What Lewis is mostly in Denver to do, though, is block.—
Nick Kosmider,
New York Times,
30 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Imitate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/imitate. Accessed 5 Nov. 2025.
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