1
as in parodying
to copy or exaggerate (someone or something) in order to make fun of
spoofed overly competitive parents in a mockumentary about tryouts for a national T-ball team
Synonyms & Similar Words
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2
as in tricking
to cause to believe what is untrue
the newspaper was spoofed by a supposedly plausible claim of a UFO encounter
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of spoofing
With spoofing tools, criminals can mimic real bank phone numbers and even use AI to reproduce familiar voices.
—
Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 6 Nov. 2025
Twice now, the Mamdani campaign has rolled out television spots aimed at co-opting and spoofing huge entertainment industry franchises — ABC’s The Bachelor and CBS’ Survivor.
—Peter Kiefer, HollywoodReporter, 23 Oct. 2025
One common tactic is account spoofing.
—Marin Independent Journal, Mercury News, 21 Oct. 2025
Alobera says that, with consent from clients, NCC Group used the voice changer alongside other techniques, like caller ID spoofing, to impersonate individuals.
—IEEE Spectrum, 21 Oct. 2025
Weitzman co-wrote and stars in the film, which delights in spoofing tired Hollywood storytelling and franchise fatigue, while toggling between jokes that are exceedingly clever and thrillingly dumb.
—William Earl, Variety, 6 Oct. 2025
Benicio Del Toro made a surprise cameo appearance on Saturday Night Live tonight, joining host Bad Bunny and frequent collaborator Marcello Hernandez in a sketch spoofing the idiosyncrasies of the Spanish language.
—Natalie Oganesyan, Deadline, 4 Oct. 2025
That effort cut caller ID spoofing calls from 1 billion in June 2022 to under 7 million by September 2022.
—Peter Ford, Forbes.com, 15 Sep. 2025
But in conflicts such as the war in Ukraine, Russian forces have extensively used GPS jamming and spoofing to disrupt operations.
—Kapil Kajal, Interesting Engineering, 8 Sep. 2025
Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 6 Nov. 2025
Twice now, the Mamdani campaign has rolled out television spots aimed at co-opting and spoofing huge entertainment industry franchises — ABC’s The Bachelor and CBS’ Survivor.
—Peter Kiefer, HollywoodReporter, 23 Oct. 2025
One common tactic is account spoofing.
—Marin Independent Journal, Mercury News, 21 Oct. 2025
Alobera says that, with consent from clients, NCC Group used the voice changer alongside other techniques, like caller ID spoofing, to impersonate individuals.
—IEEE Spectrum, 21 Oct. 2025
Weitzman co-wrote and stars in the film, which delights in spoofing tired Hollywood storytelling and franchise fatigue, while toggling between jokes that are exceedingly clever and thrillingly dumb.
—William Earl, Variety, 6 Oct. 2025
Benicio Del Toro made a surprise cameo appearance on Saturday Night Live tonight, joining host Bad Bunny and frequent collaborator Marcello Hernandez in a sketch spoofing the idiosyncrasies of the Spanish language.
—Natalie Oganesyan, Deadline, 4 Oct. 2025
That effort cut caller ID spoofing calls from 1 billion in June 2022 to under 7 million by September 2022.
—Peter Ford, Forbes.com, 15 Sep. 2025
But in conflicts such as the war in Ukraine, Russian forces have extensively used GPS jamming and spoofing to disrupt operations.
—Kapil Kajal, Interesting Engineering, 8 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for spoofing
Verb
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The brand announced the drop on Instagram with a campaign video parodying 1970s game shows.—
Catherine Santino,
PEOPLE,
5 Nov. 2025
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Meta/Facebook has rolled out engaging bots, parodying famous personas such as Jane Austen; Snapchat has offered a chatbot to individual users.—
John Wihbey,
Big Think,
7 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Ukraine orchestrated a fake hit on one of Russia's enemies who has fought alongside Ukrainian forces, tricking the Kremlin into paying out a $500,000 bounty Kyiv used to fund its war effort.—
Louis Casiano,
FOXNews.com,
2 Jan. 2026
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To pull off his human heist, Mendez must develop and try to sell a Star Wars-esque sci-fi film, in the hopes of tricking the Iranians into believing the American hostages are part of a Canadian film crew.—
Declan Gallagher,
Entertainment Weekly,
26 Dec. 2025
Verb
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An investigation by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said hackers accessed the system by imitating a legitimate user account.—
Charlotte Reck,
CNN Money,
9 Nov. 2025
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Life isn’t quite imitating art for Kim Kardashian.—
Jodi Guglielmi,
Rolling Stone,
8 Nov. 2025
Verb
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Early reports indicate that kids are fooling the age-recognition software with sophisticated techniques such as drawing on facial hair and substituting celebrity photos for their own.—
Jay Caspian Kang,
New Yorker,
23 Dec. 2025
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Anyone who thinks that this is an issue that could have been solved by nominating a couple more Spider-Man movies is fooling themselves.—
Nate Jones,
Vulture,
19 Dec. 2025
Verb
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Ricky Gervais has hosted the Golden Globes five times, making Hollywood sweat with his take-no-prisoners approach to jokes mocking showbiz.—
William Earl,
Variety,
30 Dec. 2025
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Now Sweeney, 75, is breaking his silence on a decades-long feud with Chevy Chase after Chase proposed Sweeney appear in an SNL sketch mocking the AIDS epidemic.—
Seth Abramovitch,
HollywoodReporter,
30 Dec. 2025
Verb
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Relying Too Much On Garbage Disposals Though the name may be deceiving, garbage disposals aren’t actually designed to dispose of all garbage.—
Quincy Bulin,
Southern Living,
3 Jan. 2026
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That level of eye-deceiving detail falters in wide shots, however, some of which suffer from unflattering flat lighting that in certain instances recall computer screensavers of yore, given their colorful artificiality.—
Carlos Aguilar,
Variety,
30 Dec. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Spoofing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/spoofing. Accessed 10 Jan. 2026.
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