impostor
/ɪmˈpɒstə
/(also imposter)
noun
A person who pretends to be someone else in order to deceive others, especially for fraudulent gain: the charity has warned anyone approached by the impostor to contact police immediately...
- The budding scientists of today will need to prepare themselves to do battle with silliness, impostors, tricksters and fraudsters.
- Everyone thought I knew what I was doing, but I felt like a fraud, an impostor, the Great Pretender!
- It is, then, not only the impostor's willingness to deceive on which their success depends, but the fact that we are on the whole astonishingly trusting and generally do not expect to be lied to.
Synonyms
impersonator, masquerader, pretender, deceiver, hoaxer;
fake, fraud, sham, humbug;
charlatan, quack, mountebank;
trickster, fraudster, swindler, hoodwinker, bluffer, deluder, duper, cheat, cheater, defrauder, exploiter, rogue, wolf in sheep's clothing
informal phoney, conman, con artist, flimflammer, flimflam man
dated confidence man/woman
Origin
Late 16th century (in early use spelled imposture, and sometimes confused with imposture in meaning): from French imposteur, from late Latin impostor, contraction of impositor, from Latin imponere (see impose).