impersonation

American  

[im-pur-suh-ney-shuhn] / ɪmˌpɜr səˈneɪ ʃən /

noun

1. the act of pretending to be someone else, with intent to mislead or deceive.

   The argument for requiring voter IDs is that states must guard against impersonation and other flagrant voter fraud.

2. the act of mimicking the voice, mannerisms, etc., of another person, usually someone well-known and especially in order to entertain.

   As a youth worker he found he could make teenagers laugh by doing impersonations of movie stars.

3. the act of playing the part of a character in a play.

   In the one-woman play, her impersonations of minor characters don't ring with authenticity, and her body movements are a bit severe.

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Etymology

Origin of impersonation

im- ¹ ( def. ) + personat(e) ¹ ( def. ) + -ion ( def. )

Example Sentences

“The Crown” beat him to it, so we got “Capote vs. The Swans” along with its greatest accomplishment: Bowen Yang’s Truman Capote impersonation on “Saturday Night Live.”

From Salon

The ramifications of the lost data could leave Americans susceptible to blackmail, coercion, social engineering or impersonation because the Social Security Administration has so much private and personal data, Borges said.

From MarketWatch

The ramifications of the lost data could leave Americans susceptible to blackmail, coercion, social engineering or impersonation because the Social Security Administration has so much private and personal data, Borges said.

From MarketWatch

Another potential benefit could be a decreased risk of identify theft, fraud, artificial intelligence impersonations or hacked data.

From Los Angeles Times

Deleting personal data directly from data brokers can reduce the threat of identity theft and impersonation scams.

From The Wall Street Journal