imitate
Americanverb (used with object)
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to follow or endeavor to follow as a model or example.
to imitate an author's style; to imitate an older brother.
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to mimic; impersonate.
The students imitated the teacher behind her back.
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to make a copy of; reproduce closely.
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to have or assume the appearance of; simulate; resemble.
verb
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to try to follow the manner, style, character, etc, of or take as a model
many writers imitated the language of Shakespeare
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to pretend to be or to impersonate, esp for humour; mimic
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to make a copy or reproduction of; duplicate; counterfeit
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to make or be like; resemble or simulate
her achievements in politics imitated her earlier successes in business
Synonym Usage
Imitate, copy, duplicate, reproduce all mean to follow or try to follow an example or pattern. Imitate is the general word for the idea: to imitate someone's handwriting, behavior. To copy is to make a fairly exact imitation of an original creation: to copy a sentence, a dress, a picture. To duplicate is to produce something that exactly resembles or corresponds to something else; both may be originals: to duplicate the terms of two contracts. To reproduce is to make a likeness or reconstruction of an original: to reproduce a 16th-century theater.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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imitabilitynoun
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imitatornoun
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overimitateverb (used with object)
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preimitateverb (used with object)
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imitableadjective
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nonimitatingadjective
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unimitatedadjective
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unimitatingadjective
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well-imitatedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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imitatesimple
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imitatessimple
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have imitatedperfect
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has imitatedperfect
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am imitatingprogressive
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are imitatingprogressive
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is imitatingprogressive
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have been imitatingperfect progressive
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has been imitatingperfect progressive
Past
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imitatedsimple
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had imitatedperfect
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was imitatingprogressive
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were imitatingprogressive
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had been imitatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of imitate
First recorded in 1525–35; from Latin imitātus, past participle of imitārī “to copy,” presumably a frequentative akin to the base of imāgō image
Explanation
When you imitate someone, you copy them. Youth marketers capitalize on kids' desire to imitate––tweens imitate teens, teens imitate young adults, and marketers supply the product lines to make it easy. Humans learn by imitating others. Babies carefully watch their caregivers' lips, learning to imitate the movements they make to create language sounds. Writers often begin their careers imitating the style of older writers they admire.
Vocabulary lists containing imitate
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
It may also offer new insights into wound healing, medical treatments, and the design of biomaterials that imitate or interact with biological tissue.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 20, 2026
Am I supposed to watch myself and imitate myself?
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 6, 2026
This advantage is valuable, rare and difficult to imitate.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 3, 2026
"I was trying to imitate players - like you do when you're a kid. Now I'm here winning matches. It's awesome."
From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2026
It has been shown experimentally to disturb the basic physiological process of respiration in the cell, and to imitate X-rays in damaging the chromosomes.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
We’ll all find out together if, with the original stock market superstition, life actually imitates art.
From Barron's ● Mar. 13, 2026
Instead of copying part of a virus or bacterium, this new vaccine imitates the communication signals immune cells exchange during infection.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 23, 2026
On a recent test in Poland, a Polish air-defense crew flew a Merops at a target that imitates Shaheds but it missed.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 4, 2025
While AI-generated music is rife online, it's often released under fictitious names, or imitates big stars, but it doesn't normally appear on their official streaming pages.
From BBC ● Aug. 22, 2025
“Just the way he says your name. It’s like Mee-ia,” Kimberly imitates in a singsong voice.
From "A Mango-Shaped Space" by Wendy Mass
His drip painting technique is one the art world's most recognisable and often imitated.
From BBC ● May 19, 2026
Life imitated art when, in 2019, Van Der Beek fulfilled the prophecy foretold by a “Don’t Trust the B—” storyline and became a contestant on “Dancing With the Stars.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 12, 2026
Ms. Greene is, in every sense, a singular politician, mercifully neither imitated nor imitable.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 24, 2025
Although examples exist in the United States, the architectural design originated in ancient Rome and was broadly imitated in later European monuments.
From Salon ● Nov. 5, 2025
The formula that Liszt put to use in his Hungarian Rhapsodies, and which was much imitated thereafter, was simple enough.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
The second is that a machine can demonstrate intelligence by successfully imitating a human in conversation, an idea that later became known as the Turing test.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 14, 2026
Everyone starts going crazy,” recalls Padilla, imitating the manic movements her classmates incorporated to be as noticeable as possible.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 28, 2026
The thing about Spirit that makes it complicated is that the network carriers started imitating the business model of Spirit and the other ultra-low-cost carriers through basic economy fares.
From Slate ● May 5, 2026
So, faced with adult stores and mixed-age social media feeds, girls are doing what girls have always done: watching older girls, imitating grown-up rituals, reaching for whatever is available.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 20, 2026
It seemed that he and Hamlet were imitating each other’s antics.
From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
