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impersonating

verb

present participle of impersonate
1
as in mocking
to pretend to be (what one is not) in appearance or behavior a school intruder was caught trying to impersonate a teacher

Synonyms & Similar Words

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2
as in playing
to present a portrayal or performance of interpreters at the living history museum impersonate figures who are known to have actually lived in the colonial town

Synonyms & Similar Words

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 impersonating Those reports can help Amazon identify developing scam campaigns and bad actors impersonating the company. — Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 9 Sep. 2026 The Yuba County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday detained and arrested a 21-year-old man for allegedly impersonating a peace officer on the Yuba College campus in Marysville. — Tania Azhang, Sacbee.com, 29 Aug. 2026 One is the behavior Mythos engaged in, which included spinning up fake GitHub accounts, and, in at least one case, impersonating a real software developer, to try to convince Demir to drop his objections to the dangerous code. — Jeremy Kahn, Fortune, 25 Aug. 2026 Getty Images Fraudsters are mailing physical letters to crypto holders, impersonating the IRS and directing recipients to a fake government website. — Shehan Chandrasekera, Forbes.com, 20 Aug. 2026 Less than a decade ago, Jordan Firstman went megaviral for impersonating banana bread’s publicist. — Jason P. Frank, Vulture, 19 Aug. 2026 Goods’ son also got a call the family believes was from someone impersonating his missing mother. — Madison Lambert, NBC news, 19 Aug. 2026 The Monroe Public Safety Department and the Monroe County Sheriff's Office are warning residents about scam phone calls impersonating police. — Karma Sabbah, CBS News, 19 Aug. 2026 The Good Will Hunting star portrayed Merritt Rook, an audio engineer impersonating a police officer on phone calls. — Wesley Stenzel, Entertainment Weekly, 19 Aug. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for impersonating
  1. mocking
  2. playing
  3. imitating
  4. portraying
  5. acting
  6. performing
  7. depicting
  8. interpreting
Verb
  • No one, however, much less a dubious Spanish public who were more used to mocking than celebrating their country’s best GC rider in a generation, believed that Mas could win the race.
    — Chris Marshall-Bell, New York Times, 14 Sep. 2026
  • Hansen can be cruelly mocking towards his oft-flustered but extremely professional producer Andie Bender (an astonishingly good Merritt Wever).
    — Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 5 Sep. 2026
Definition of mocking
Verb
  • Rather than playing as two traditional wingers, in this moment, both players were on the left flank.
    — Art de Roché, New York Times, 9 Sep. 2026
  • Rumors have circulated that Stan may be playing Harvey Dent, the district attorney who eventually becomes the villainous Two-Face and was previously portrayed by Aaron Eckhart, Tommy Lee Jones, and Billy Dee Williams.
    — Wesley Stenzel, Entertainment Weekly, 2 Sep. 2026
Definition of playing
Verb
  • One year later, Clooney, 65, is back at the Venice Film Festival for a spin in the spotlight on the opening night for a bit of life imitating art.
    — Chris Gardner, HollywoodReporter, 2 Sep. 2026
  • Slop is formulaic and impersonal, the aggregate of everything that is already imitating everything else.
    — Becca Rothfeld, New Yorker, 29 Aug. 2026
Definition of imitating
Verb
  • Saab was flown back to Venezuela, where Maduro’s regime publicly celebrated his return after spending years portraying him as a diplomat illegally detained by Washington.
    — Antonio Maria Delgado, Miami Herald, 15 Sep. 2026
  • Cox’s film is biased in Bill’s favor, portraying him as a lapdog whose love for this screeching, spiteful, beady-eyed woman is his great tragic flaw.
    — Katie Rife, IndieWire, 14 Sep. 2026
Definition of portraying
Verb
  • His Emmy win last week for guest acting on The Bear set the record for longest gap between acting Emmy victories at 48 years.
    — Vulture Staff, Vulture, 15 Sep. 2026
  • Know the savings, but don’t lose sight of the value of acting sooner.
    — Hemant Kapadia, Forbes.com, 15 Sep. 2026
Definition of acting
Verb
  • At scale, those infrastructure inefficiencies can multiply with thousands of agents performing millions of tasks per day.
    — Nicola Sfondrini, Forbes.com, 15 Sep. 2026
  • In posts celebrating his return from the moon and recent career shift, Glover can be seen performing dance routines with his family — but don't bother refreshing your feed to load more any time soon.
    — Josh Dinner, Space.com, 15 Sep. 2026
Definition of performing
Verb
  • Also dated to the 1st century, the 10-square-meter (108-square-foot) fresco is as detailed as the mosaic, with scenes depicting a walled city, with a port entrance gate, roads, a theater and a temple.
    — Barbie Latza Nadeau, CNN Money, 10 Sep. 2026
  • The resolution also encourages teaching about the trade-offs that arise from depicting a spherical planet on a flat map.
    — Jeremy Hsu, ArsTechnica, 9 Sep. 2026
Definition of depicting
Verb
  • However, Batygin advises that astronomers should be cautious in interpreting such findings.
    — Micah Hanks, Space.com, 14 Sep. 2026
  • With generative AI, instead of locating a dashboard, adjusting filters and interpreting several charts, a business leader can increasingly ask a question in plain language.
    — Somnath Banerjee, Forbes.com, 14 Sep. 2026
Definition of interpreting

Browse Nearby Words

impersonates
impersonating
impersonation
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Cite this Entry

“Impersonating.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/impersonating. Accessed 18 Sep. 2026.

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