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
Relevance
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
By Libby Hanssen, kansascity.com, 3 June 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for personate
Verb
-
Alex has given everything to the game and to the Golden Knights and has played through significant challenges in the pursuit of trying to win another Stanley Cup in Vegas.—
Ryan Gaydos,
FOXNews.com,
1 July 2025
-
Students were required to undertake certain extracurricular activities (Prevost was in the choir with Franks—both sing tenor—and played tennis) and to keep up their academic performance, but mostly the school’s focus was how to live in community.—
Belinda Luscombe,
Time,
1 July 2025
Verb
-
Minnesota Vikings linebacker Dallas Turner received a call from someone impersonating himself to be a banker at JPMorgan Chase on Feb. 19, which led to the eventual bank heist.—
Ryan Morik,
FOXNews.com,
10 July 2025
-
The most common scheme: impersonating public figures to promote fraudulent investments, which has already resulted in $401 million in losses.—
Sharon Goldman,
Fortune,
10 July 2025
Verb
-
And beyond device checks, smart verification systems can also monitor behavioral signals—like typing speed, location, or login habits—to spot anomalies that a cloned voice can’t imitate.—
Sharon Goldman,
Fortune,
10 July 2025
-
His celebration imitated him sitting down playing a video game – a tribute to his former Portugal teammate Diogo Jota who died in a car crash last week.—
Ben Morse,
CNN Money,
10 July 2025
Verb
-
And of course, that following Sunday, Oliver did indeed mock his corporate bosses for the move.—
Michael Schneider,
Variety,
8 July 2025
-
Many wanted Tiger to comment, but others chose to mock Williams.—
Devlina Sarkar,
MSNBC Newsweek,
5 July 2025
Verb
-
The latter has portrayed The Waitress — the object of Day's character Charlie Kelly's obsessive, unrequited love — in 37 episodes across 16 seasons of the long-running FX series.—
Erin Clack,
People.com,
6 July 2025
-
Kenneth Colley, the British actor who appeared in seven features for director Ken Russell and portrayed the Darth Vader underling Admiral Piett in the Star Wars films The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, has died.—
Mike Barnes,
HollywoodReporter,
4 July 2025
Verb
-
Yet court documents show White has only faced minor firearms charges in the shooting, and that Fremont police have investigated whether White acted in self-defense.—
Jakob Rodgers,
Mercury News,
11 July 2025
-
The senior White House official said agencies are now awaiting guidance on the next step in the layoff process, but the administration will be acting immediately.—
Erin Mansfield,
USA Today,
10 July 2025
Cite this Entry
“Personate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/personate. Accessed 16 Jul. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share