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. )

Explanation

Impersonation is when someone pretends to be another person. If you pretend to be your twin brother all day at school, that's impersonation. There are a few different forms of impersonation — some of them are harmless, like comedians who use impersonation to mimic the voices and mannerisms of famous people, or actors who play historical figures in movies. Other kinds of impersonation are harmful, including when a thief takes someone's identity (including Social Security number and bank information) in order to steal their money. Impersonation has the Latin roots in-, "into," and persona, "person."

Example Sentences

A staple of his stump speech is an impersonation of the president.

From Slate • May 19, 2026

Peters was convicted on several charges including attempting to influence a public servant, violating her elections duty and conspiring to commit criminal impersonation.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 15, 2026

AI is enabling scalable phishing emails, fraudulent texts, impersonation chatbots, cloned-voice scams and automated outreach.

From MarketWatch • May 11, 2026

Meta was last year ordered to step up safeguards on Facebook after scammers used images of top officials in impersonation schemes.

From Barron's • Mar. 13, 2026

By now, though, Singleton was also doing his best Rindlisbacher impersonation.

From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel