variants
or imposters
as in pretenders
one who makes false claims of identity or expertise
the man who claimed to be a prince turned out to be an impostor
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Recent Examples of impostors
McKelway, who wrote for the magazine from the nineteen-thirties to the sixties, specialized in true-crime stories, bringing to life a gallery of scamps and swindlers and impostors.
—
David Grann, New Yorker, 19 Oct. 2025
By the finale, the galactic chessboard is crowded with players—emperors, rebels, prophets, impostors—but as Hari Seldon (Jared Harris) warned in the very first episode, the center cannot hold.
—Jp Mangalindan, Time, 12 Sep. 2025
That’s until their cover in California Schemin’ as rapping imposters was blown and the emotional strain of denying their Scottishness and their fractured friendship revealed itself.
—Etan Vlessing, HollywoodReporter, 5 Sep. 2025
Then there are impostors, which are often heartbreaking.
—Jason Phillips, USA Today, 5 Sep. 2025
Attackers can easily generate convincing digital impostors that fool people and biometric systems.
—Brian Greenberg, Forbes.com, 25 Aug. 2025
There are currently imposters even pretending to represent the FTC itself.
—Jeanne Sahadi, CNN Money, 20 Aug. 2025
The term became popular thanks to the pandemic-era online game Among Us, where players have to find imposters among their crew.
—Mia Thurow, jsonline.com, 20 Aug. 2025
The Democratic Women’s Caucus wrote in a letter to ICE and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) leaders Monday that the change is necessary to protect women from assaults and kidnappings by imposters.
—Elizabeth Crisp, The Hill, 12 Aug. 2025
David Grann, New Yorker, 19 Oct. 2025
By the finale, the galactic chessboard is crowded with players—emperors, rebels, prophets, impostors—but as Hari Seldon (Jared Harris) warned in the very first episode, the center cannot hold.
—Jp Mangalindan, Time, 12 Sep. 2025
That’s until their cover in California Schemin’ as rapping imposters was blown and the emotional strain of denying their Scottishness and their fractured friendship revealed itself.
—Etan Vlessing, HollywoodReporter, 5 Sep. 2025
Then there are impostors, which are often heartbreaking.
—Jason Phillips, USA Today, 5 Sep. 2025
Attackers can easily generate convincing digital impostors that fool people and biometric systems.
—Brian Greenberg, Forbes.com, 25 Aug. 2025
There are currently imposters even pretending to represent the FTC itself.
—Jeanne Sahadi, CNN Money, 20 Aug. 2025
The term became popular thanks to the pandemic-era online game Among Us, where players have to find imposters among their crew.
—Mia Thurow, jsonline.com, 20 Aug. 2025
The Democratic Women’s Caucus wrote in a letter to ICE and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) leaders Monday that the change is necessary to protect women from assaults and kidnappings by imposters.
—Elizabeth Crisp, The Hill, 12 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for impostors
Noun
-
Week 9 of the college football season separated some contenders from pretenders.—
Jordan Sigler,
MSNBC Newsweek,
26 Oct. 2025
-
The contenders, pretenders and everybody in between.—
Andrew Callahan,
Boston Herald,
25 Sep. 2025
Noun
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To tell the truly venomous from the fakers, there are a couple details to help distinguish the two.—
Kirsten Fiscus,
Nashville Tennessean,
17 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
As experts departed, quacks arrived.—
Charles Bethea,
New Yorker,
9 Sep. 2025
-
Medallion’s Derek Lo figures that his software can cut through the system’s redundancies, slashing the time and cost of paperwork designed to prevent quacks from practicing medicine and safeguard patients that’s spiraled into something burdensome.—
Amy Feldman,
Forbes.com,
20 Aug. 2025
Noun
-
Notice how these two Third World frauds are in federal custody, not state.—
Howie Carr,
Boston Herald,
24 Oct. 2025
-
In the knee-jerk world of modern football, yesterday’s world-beaters are tomorrow’s frauds.—
James Pearce,
New York Times,
8 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
Pennywise has now been portrayed in a miniseries, two films, and now series, but only by two actors.—
Ryan Coleman,
Entertainment Weekly,
23 Oct. 2025
-
The Bugonia star, 37, began dating Dunst after working with her on season 2 of the FX drama Fargo, which aired in 2015; the actors married in July 2022.—
Jack Smart,
PEOPLE,
22 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
Using such authentication increases trust in genuine images, and undermines fakes.—
Nikita Ostrovsky,
Time,
20 Oct. 2025
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Farid warned that the growing prevalence of AI fakes in politics could have a corrosive effect.—
NPR,
NPR,
18 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Impostors.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/impostors. Accessed 28 Oct. 2025.
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