imposture

American  

[im-pos-cher] / ɪmˈpɒs tʃər /

noun

1. the action or practice of imposing fraudulently upon others.

2. deception using an assumed character, identity, or name, as by an impostor.

3. an instance or piece of fraudulent imposition.

   Synonyms:

   cheat, humbug, deception, swindle, hoax, fraud

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imposture British  

/ ɪmˈpɒstrəs, ɪmˈpɒstərəs, ɪmˈpɒstʃə /

noun

1. the act or an instance of deceiving others, esp by assuming a false identity

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Other Word Forms

• impostrous
  adjective
• imposturous
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of imposture

1530–40; < Late Latin impostūra, equivalent to Latin impost ( us ) past participle of impōnere ( see impostor, impone) + -ūra -ure

Explanation

Imposture is the act of pretending to be someone else. Everyone knows the Elvis impersonator isn’t really Elvis himself, but your imposture as Elvis’s long-lost daughter might actually fool some people. Imposture comes from the verb, to impose, and it has the sense of deliberately deceiving someone. Someone who perpetrates an imposture is an imposter. If you go to a job interview and pretend that you graduated from Harvard when really you never even went to college, that is an act of imposture. If the interviewer finds out, she might disgustedly say to you, “Get out, you imposter!”

Example Sentences

Imposture turns on a "ridiculous mistake" which somehow fooled credulous reviewers; A Quiet Adjustment is "three hundred pages of repression, of a particularly English kind".

From The Guardian • Aug. 26, 2011

Account of the Detection of the Imposture of the Cock-Lane Ghost, published in the Newspapers and Gentleman's Magazine. acknowl.

From Life of Johnson, Volume 1 1709-1765 by Hill, George Birkbeck Norman

So long as it endures, the World will continue to be rul'd by Cajolery, by Injustice, and by Imposture.

From Books and Characters French and English by Strachey, Giles Lytton

Imposture is a deceitful contrivance for securing charity, credit, or consideration.

From English Synonyms and Antonyms With Notes on the Correct Use of Prepositions by Fernald, James Champlin

Humphry Wickham of Swakely Esq; whose Person and Character he pretended to represent, and in which Imposture he made his last Exit.

From The Notorious Impostor and Diego Redivivus by Settle, Elkanah