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
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Example Sentences
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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
By Libby Hanssen, kansascity.com, 3 June 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for personate
Verb
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He's played Dante Falconeri on the soap since 2009 and has appeared in over 1,600 episodes as the mob boss.—
Julia Moore,
PEOPLE,
18 Oct. 2025
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Betts made a Gold Glove finalist-worthy play for the first out – ranging into the hole to make a backhand play then a jump throw to first.—
Bill Plunkett,
Oc Register,
17 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Justin Simmons, 30, is charged with impersonating a peace officer and kidnapping.—
Jennifer Rodriguez,
Kansas City Star,
20 Oct. 2025
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Kenan pops up to confront her for impersonating a police officer at her concerts.—
Andy Hoglund,
Entertainment Weekly,
19 Oct. 2025
Verb
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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
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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
Verb
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One of the challenges for me as biographer was not to trivalize this obsession, not to mock it in any way.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
14 Oct. 2025
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Their mother began a relationship with a swaggering alcoholic, their future stepfather, who mocked Scott for being soft.—
Eren Orbey,
New Yorker,
13 Oct. 2025
Verb
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But no matter the intent — the intent can be right, but when things get misconstrued, or however the media wants to portray it, that leaves a void of silence and a lot of questions for the guys on our team.—
Saad Yousuf,
New York Times,
16 Oct. 2025
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That pic won Safdie best director at Venice and earned Johnson the best reviews of his career portraying UFC fighter Mark Kerr.—
Justin Kroll,
Deadline,
16 Oct. 2025
Verb
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The more inventive idea from Google is allowing your friends and family members to act as recovery partners for your Google account.—
PC Magazine,
PC Magazine,
16 Oct. 2025
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For that reason, the government has a responsibility to act as both a steward of resources and a champion for equity.—
Pioneer Press elections team,
Twin Cities,
16 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Personate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/personate. Accessed 22 Oct. 2025.
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