as in to play
to pretend to be (what one is not) in appearance or behavior likes to personate the man of the world, but he's still the small-town hick that he always was

Synonyms & Similar Words

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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 personate Till’s motifs swept though the ensemble, as horns, clarinets, bassoons, violin all had a chance to personate the character. By Libby Hanssen, kansascity.com, 3 June 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for personate
Verb
  • Pascal and Bad Bunny played the lothario's hot brothers.
    Raechal Shewfelt, Entertainment Weekly, 1 Nov. 2025
  • The Heat entered Tuesday’s matchup against the Hornets having outscored opponents by a total of 46 points in the 29 minutes that the bench quartet of Fontecchio, Jaquez, Jovic and Smith played together through the first three games of the season.
    Anthony Chiang, Miami Herald, 31 Oct. 2025
Verb
  • The experience of being impersonated led de Blasio to reflect on the need for stronger action around the safety risks of emerging technology.
    Jessica Coacci, Fortune, 2 Nov. 2025
  • From fake invoices to urgent messages impersonating company executives, phishing attacks are growing more personalized, more sophisticated—and more effective.
    Melissa Fleur Afshar, MSNBC Newsweek, 29 Oct. 2025
Verb
  • Art imitating life a little bit.
    Senior Editor, MSNBC Newsweek, 5 Nov. 2025
  • That work led to the Multisensory Correlation Detector (MCD), which could imitate human responses to simple audiovisual patterns like flashes and clicks.
    Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 4 Nov. 2025
Verb
  • Spicer was voted out after eight weeks of mocking from social media and the show’s judges.
    Jackie Strause, HollywoodReporter, 5 Nov. 2025
  • Brown said, mocking the press headlines.
    Zack Sharf, Variety, 5 Nov. 2025
Verb
  • At the time, Agnes had been working with General Mills as one of the women who anonymously portrayed Betty Crocker on the radio.
    Colson Thayer, PEOPLE, 31 Oct. 2025
  • The annulment, first reported by Sports Business Journal, came as a surprise, given that the parties had portrayed the deal as having been consummated.
    Daniel Libit, Sportico.com, 30 Oct. 2025
Verb
  • When ministers reconvened in 1999, the Executive Presbytery — 21 senior ministers who act as a board of directors — urged against adoption.
    Mike Hixenbaugh, NBC news, 30 Oct. 2025
  • In addition to winning Francesca to her cause, the episode also reveals that Fringilla Vigo is also acting as Yennefer’s mole, insinuating herself with Vilgefortz while passing information back to the sorceresses.
    Scott Meslow, Vulture, 30 Oct. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Personate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/personate. Accessed 6 Nov. 2025.

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