imposture
noun
Example Sentences
Judith Thurman, The New Yorker, 20 June 2022 By the end, this newly bold Portia, empowered by imposture, is more singer than speaker. Vinson Cunningham, The New Yorker, 21 Feb. 2022 This form of imposture has a pedigree — or a past, anyway. Kwame Anthony Appiah, New York Times, 19 Oct. 2021 Fake men can’t live: the cost of the imposture proves too high, and the good fake men—the ones like Vision—will take their own lives or let themselves be killed. Stephanie Burt, The New Yorker, 11 Mar. 2021 When Daniel is released and skips his work assignment at a sawmill to pose as a new priest in a small town, his imposture — as Father Tomasz — verges on blasphemy. Armond White, National Review, 20 Feb. 2020 And who wants to be the party-pooper who says that some kinds of imposture are less fair than others? Ty Burr, BostonGlobe.com, 12 July 2018 Thus begins a chain of machinations, impostures, and stratagems, including mare’s sweat, pirates, cross-dressing, and mistaken identity. John Timpane, Philly.com, 14 Sep. 2017 The actual lady’s maid (wryly mocking Stephanie Goodman) is fully on to Bludgepot’s imposture and watches his scrambling with a sardonic smirk. Sam Hurwitt, The Mercury News, 17 Apr. 2017 See More Word History
Late Latin impostura, from Latin impositus, impostus, past participle of imponere
1537, in the meaning defined at sense 1
Kids Definition
imposture
noun
imposture
noun
Synonyms & Similar Words
- affectation
- imitation
- fiction
- pretence
- pretense
- make-belief
- masquerade
- insinuation
- simulation
- make-believe
- representation
- likeness
- demonstration
- pose
- disguise
- resemblance
- display
- mask
- implication
- cloak
- image
- veneer
- surface
- effect
- suggestion
- facade
- gloss
- hint
- patina
- seeming
- impression
- front
- façade
- exterior
- shell
- shape
- semblance
- air
- guise
- outward
- appearance
- name
- Potemkin village
- show
- face
Synonyms & Similar Words
- deception
- fakery
- dissimulation
- duplicity
- quackery
- humbuggery
- deceit
- insincerity
- hypocrisy
- dishonesty
- deceptiveness
- crookedness
- treachery
- guile
- cunning
- deceitfulness
- double-dealing
- crookery
- dupery
- shrewdness
- underhandedness
- shiftiness
- deviousness
- slyness
- sneakiness
- trickery
- subterfuge
- secrecy
- artfulness
- craftiness
- cunning
- slipperiness
- dirty pool
- scheming
- chicanery
- jugglery
- oiliness
- stealth
- dirty tricks
- guilefulness
- wiliness
- plotting
- slickness
- skulduggery
- shadiness
- caginess
- legerdemain
- cageyness
- gamesmanship
- artifice
- skullduggery
- wile
- chicane
- sharpness
- foxiness
- design
- jiggery-pokery
- hanky-panky
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
- sincerity
- ingenuousness
- artlessness
- guilelessness
- forthrightness
- directness
- candor
- openness
- plainness
- candidness
- plainspokenness
Synonym Chooser
Some common synonyms of imposture are counterfeit, fake, fraud, humbug, and sham. While all these words mean "a thing made to seem other than it is," imposture applies to any situation in which a spurious object or performance is passed off as genuine.
While in some cases nearly identical to imposture, counterfeit applies especially to the close imitation of something valuable.
The meanings of fake and imposture largely overlap; however, fake implies an imitation of or substitution for the genuine but does not necessarily imply dishonesty.
While the synonyms fraud and imposture are close in meaning, fraud usually implies a deliberate perversion of the truth.
In some situations, the words humbug and imposture are roughly equivalent. However, humbug suggests elaborate pretense usually so flagrant as to be transparent.
The synonyms sham and imposture are sometimes interchangeable, but sham applies to fraudulent imitation of a real thing or action.