impersonation

[im-pur-suh-ney-shuhn]

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.

Word History and Origins

Origin of impersonation¹

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

Example Sentences

The Swedish audio company said it would improve its enforcement of impersonation violations, launch a new spam filtering system and work with partners to label tracks that incorporate AI.

From Los Angeles Times

They added that its AI Studio rules forbid "direct impersonation of public figures".

From BBC

A spokesperson for the tech giant said while those fake images did not violate its content policies, it investigated them and found they broke its rules around impersonation or trading of pages.

From BBC

“I didn’t want to attempt to do some impersonation or impression,” Van Patten says.

From Los Angeles Times

Mr Norman also revealed the attacker gained access to the system through "sophisticated impersonation".

From BBC