impersonate
Americanverb (used with object)
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impersonates,
present (3rd person singular)
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impersonated,
past participle, past
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impersonating
present participle
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to assume the character or appearance of; pretend to be.
He was arrested for impersonating a police officer.
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to mimic the voice, mannerisms, etc., of (a person) in order to entertain.
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to act or play the part of; personate.
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Archaic. to represent in personal or bodily form; personify; typify.
adjective
verb
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to pretend to be (another person)
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to imitate the character, mannerisms, etc, of (another person)
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rare to play the part or character of
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an archaic word for personify
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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impersonatesimple
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impersonatessimple
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have impersonatedperfect
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has impersonatedperfect
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am impersonatingprogressive
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are impersonatingprogressive
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is impersonatingprogressive
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have been impersonatingperfect progressive
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has been impersonatingperfect progressive
Past
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impersonatedsimple
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had impersonatedperfect
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was impersonatingprogressive
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were impersonatingprogressive
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had been impersonatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of impersonate
Explanation
Impersonate means to pretend to be someone you're not. If you impersonate a bank teller in order to gain access to the money in the vault, you better hope nobody at the bank asks you any questions. Impersonate comes from the Latin in and persona, meaning "to invest with a personality." It often is used to describe someone posing as someone else for criminal purposes, but you can also impersonate someone for comedic effect. You may have seen actors on television do this. They impersonate politicians and celebrities by wearing wigs and makeup and try to match the famous person's mannerisms and way of speaking as closely as possible.
Vocabulary lists containing impersonate
The Secret Life of Bees
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Rebound
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This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for February 5–February 11, 2022
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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:
The mailings don’t impersonate, or claim to represent, a union.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026
It said this includes mandating tech firms ban those who post scams and prevent them from creating new accounts, as well as those who impersonate real businesses.
From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026
For example, they can be trained to impersonate someone.
From Barron's ● Jun. 11, 2026
Detectives believe someone used the elder Hou’s cellphone to impersonate him for more than a month.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 24, 2026
He could impersonate anybody—from a British general to a drunken farmer.
From "Johnny Tremain" by Esther Hoskins Forbes
This can occur when a company impersonates an airline’s customer-service number or site, often by buying a sponsored ad on a search platform.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 29, 2026
The scheme, outlined in court documents, bears striking similarities to the 2002 DiCaprio film in which a charming teenager running from the FBI impersonates a pilot to jet around the world.
From BBC ● Jan. 21, 2026
With Thursday’s criminal complaint containing allegations of phone conversations in which Mizuhara actually impersonates Ohtani to gain access to the money, I believe.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 11, 2024
An X account called “Mossad Commentary,” which impersonates Israel’s intelligence agency, made such a claim in a post on Monday at 3:49 a.m.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 5, 2024
For a young woman to dream that she impersonates Eve, warns her to be careful.
From Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted, or what's in a dream: a scientific and practical exposition by Gustavus Hindman Miller
Campbell appealed, saying one of her fellow trustees, lawyer Bianka Hellmich, forged her signature and impersonated her using a fake email address to misdirect money that was intended for the charity.
From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026
More than 60 of its organizations that provide direct legal services have been impersonated by con artists.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026
In San Diego, attorneys working for the city have been impersonated by scammers.
From Salon ● May 2, 2026
The court heard "blagging" was when someone impersonated someone else, in order to obtain private information.
From BBC ● Mar. 9, 2026
“I got on the phone and impersonated Ms. Helton,” she said.
From "City Spies" by James Ponti
But that judgment should be guided by a simple principle—AI may help us find and express our voice; it shouldn’t become a means of impersonating one.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 22, 2026
London-based Revolut, among the most popular of Europe’s breed of digital “neo-banks,” had voluntarily handed his data to someone impersonating a government agency.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026
Trump’s pardon czar, Alice Marie Johnson, recently took to social media saying that people have been impersonating her and asking for a “processing fee” to help smooth the path to clemency.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2026
The fabricated content appeared on X in posts impersonating legitimate French media outlets and falsely claimed that Attal had Parkinson's disease and that Philippe had contracted an illness.
From Barron's ● Aug. 18, 2026
I worried so much about how I looked and whether I was doing things right, I felt half the time I was impersonating a girl instead of really being one.
From "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd
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.
