variants
also wannabee
as in follower
a person who adopts the appearance or behavior of another especially in an obvious way
an entrepreneur who seems to have made his fortune mainly by giving how-to-get-rich lectures to entrepreneurial wannabes
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of wannabe
Great powers are marked by their capacity to make painful choices—great-power wannabes have to make tough choices, too.
—
Nirupama Rao, Foreign Affairs, 30 July 2025
Looking at the historical sample of data, the goal was to develop a set of rules that helped distinguish the genuine contenders from the pretenders and to narrow down as few actual champions as possible while simultaneously eliminating as many of the wannabes.
—Neil Paine, New York Times, 17 June 2025
These are real veterans, not the local wannabes who give lip service to those who have been in the military but are somehow unable to credit the sacrifices of those who don’t share their political party.
—Naperville Sun, Chicago Tribune, 28 Mar. 2025
Listen to this article St. Patrick’s Day is a celebration enjoyed by Irish and Irish wannabes alike.
—Cathy Thomas, Orange County Register, 11 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for wannabe
Nirupama Rao, Foreign Affairs, 30 July 2025
Looking at the historical sample of data, the goal was to develop a set of rules that helped distinguish the genuine contenders from the pretenders and to narrow down as few actual champions as possible while simultaneously eliminating as many of the wannabes.
—Neil Paine, New York Times, 17 June 2025
These are real veterans, not the local wannabes who give lip service to those who have been in the military but are somehow unable to credit the sacrifices of those who don’t share their political party.
—Naperville Sun, Chicago Tribune, 28 Mar. 2025
Listen to this article St. Patrick’s Day is a celebration enjoyed by Irish and Irish wannabes alike.
—Cathy Thomas, Orange County Register, 11 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for wannabe
Recent Examples of Synonyms for wannabe
Noun
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Tate has amassed more than 10 million followers on X and hundreds of thousands more on other platforms like Telegram and Truth Social.—
Will Carless,
USA Today,
3 Sep. 2025
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To emphasize the sad state of affairs, Ilett updated his followers on another bad hair day from inside a running shower, his matted locks drooping to his cheekbones.—
Don Riddell,
CNN Money,
2 Sep. 2025
Noun
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Top off fall fits with cozy scarves—think last year’s iconic Acne Studio scarf (and its many imitators) that is still going strong.—
Celia Shatzman,
Forbes.com,
29 Aug. 2025
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The LLMs behind generative agents and chatbots such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini are certainly expert imitators.—
Webb Wright,
Scientific American,
18 Aug. 2025
Noun
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Throughout your visit, Rummy the parrot makes a few appearances above the bar, and the entire space comes alive during interactive moments.—
Elizabeth Rhodes,
Travel + Leisure,
26 Aug. 2025
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The trees are also home to a variety of parrots and other birds.—
Mailin Sophie Zieser,
Architectural Digest,
26 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Wannabe.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/wannabe. Accessed 9 Sep. 2025.
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