impersonate
verb
im·per·son·ate im-ˈpər-sə-ˌnāt 
impersonated; impersonating
transitive verb
: to assume or act the character of : personate
impersonation
im-ˌpər-sə-ˈnā-shən
noun impersonator
im-ˈpər-sə-ˌnā-tər
noun 
Synonyms
- act
- masquerade (as)
- personate
- play
- pose (as)
See all Synonyms & Antonyms 
Example Sentences
He was arrested for impersonating a police officer. a comedian with a talent for impersonating famous politicians and actors
Recent Examples on the Web To realistically impersonate someone doing something unusual, Mirsky says that the AI software needs to have seen thousands of examples of people doing that thing. 
Jeremy Kahn, Fortune, 3 Sep. 2022 The access then gave the hacker enough information to impersonate an official at the housing nonprofit Central City Concern, which was preparing to secure $1.4 million in local funding. Michael Kan, PCMAG, 22 Aug. 2022 Researchers at the firm Snyk and my company discovered malicious, public npm packages, some clearly intended to impersonate legitimate, private npm packages used by unknown and unnamed firms. Mario Vuksan, Forbes, 6 July 2022 The hacker used a database to find user IDs and passwords online to impersonate members, gaining access to people’s claim and payment information, health insurance policy details, contact information and other personal information. Angie Dimichele, Sun Sentinel, 27 June 2022 At one point, chatters hired to impersonate her did such a poor job that her most loyal subscribers realized they were being fooled. New York Times, 16 May 2022 Or the scammers impersonate Amazon and send a text about an order. Susan Tompor, Detroit Free Press, 27 July 2022 In a similar vein, scammers sometimes impersonate a landlord or government agency to induce customers to make fraudulent transfers. Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 25 July 2022 Hackers who obtain this passcode can use it to log in to the web server, impersonate the legitimate user, and send commands to the tracker through SMS communications that appear to come from the GPS user’s mobile number. Dan Goodin, Ars Technica, 19 July 2022 See More
Jeremy Kahn, Fortune, 3 Sep. 2022 The access then gave the hacker enough information to impersonate an official at the housing nonprofit Central City Concern, which was preparing to secure $1.4 million in local funding. Michael Kan, PCMAG, 22 Aug. 2022 Researchers at the firm Snyk and my company discovered malicious, public npm packages, some clearly intended to impersonate legitimate, private npm packages used by unknown and unnamed firms. Mario Vuksan, Forbes, 6 July 2022 The hacker used a database to find user IDs and passwords online to impersonate members, gaining access to people’s claim and payment information, health insurance policy details, contact information and other personal information. Angie Dimichele, Sun Sentinel, 27 June 2022 At one point, chatters hired to impersonate her did such a poor job that her most loyal subscribers realized they were being fooled. New York Times, 16 May 2022 Or the scammers impersonate Amazon and send a text about an order. Susan Tompor, Detroit Free Press, 27 July 2022 In a similar vein, scammers sometimes impersonate a landlord or government agency to induce customers to make fraudulent transfers. Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 25 July 2022 Hackers who obtain this passcode can use it to log in to the web server, impersonate the legitimate user, and send commands to the tracker through SMS communications that appear to come from the GPS user’s mobile number. Dan Goodin, Ars Technica, 19 July 2022 See More Word History
First Known Use
1715, in the meaning defined above
Kids Definition
impersonate
verb
im·per·son·ate im-ˈpər-sə-ˌnāt
impersonated; impersonating
: to pretend to be another person
Legal Definition
impersonate
transitive verb
im·per·son·ate im-ˈpər-sə-ˌnāt
impersonated; impersonating
: to assume (another's or a fictitious identity) without authority and with fraudulent intent
impersonate a police officer
impersonated a public servant by saying he was from the water department
impersonating
verb
1
as in mocking
to pretend to be (what one is not) in appearance or behavior a school intruder was caught trying to impersonate a teacher Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
- mocking
- personating
- imitating
- playing
- portraying
- acting
- parodying
- mimicking
- aping
- copying
- miming
- monkeying
- masquerading (as)
- posing (as)
- performing
- travestying
2
as in playing
to present a portrayal or performance of interpreters at the living history museum impersonate figures who are known to have actually lived in the colonial town Synonyms & Similar Words
- playing
- portraying
- performing
- depicting
- interpreting
- acting
- representing
- doing
- masquerading
- imitating
- dramatizing
- enacting
- mimicking
- rendering
- pantomiming
- aping
- playacting
- miming
- acting out
- clowning
- underplaying
- overacting
- hamming
- overplaying
- taking on
- role-playing
- coacting
- costarring
- co-starring
- co-acting
- posing (as)
- starring (in)