adjective
-
imitating or tending to imitate or copy
-
characterized by imitation
-
copying or reproducing the features of an original, esp in an inferior manner
imitative painting
-
another word for onomatopoeic
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of imitative
From the Late Latin word imitātīvus, dating back to 1575–85. See imitate, -ive
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.
That was great advice because it was a book that I’d written very much out of imitative aspiration, imitating Joyce and Hemingway.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 26, 2026
Mulligan is so good here that she lays bare some of her co-star’s more studied artifice, including a few overly imitative Bernstein-isms and some affectedly nasal vocal delivery.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 21, 2023
The research also details potential breakthroughs in specific areas, including pump-jet propulsion and internal quieting devices, based on "imitative innovation" of Russian technology.
From Reuters • Oct. 9, 2023
But those efforts, like so many film adaptations before them, distill essentially only the basic ingredients of their stage sources — plot, character, music — and as a result feel more imitative than transformative.
From Washington Post • Mar. 18, 2022
I knew it must have been a trick she had taught him, or imitative rodent behavior.
From "Stargirl" by Jerry Spinelli
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.
