imposture

American  

[im-pos-cher] / ɪmˈpɒs tʃər /

noun

1. the action or practice of imposing fraudulently upon others.

2. deception using an assumed character, identity, or name, as by an impostor.

3. an instance or piece of fraudulent imposition.

   Synonyms:

   cheat, humbug, deception, swindle, hoax, fraud

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imposture British  

/ ɪmˈpɒstrəs, ɪmˈpɒstərəs, ɪmˈpɒstʃə /

noun

1. the act or an instance of deceiving others, esp by assuming a false identity

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Other Word Forms

• impostrous adjective
• imposturous adjective

Etymology

Origin of imposture

1530–40; < Late Latin impostūra, equivalent to Latin impost ( us ) past participle of impōnere ( impostor, impone ) + -ūra -ure

Example Sentences

Tony Schwartz, who wrote “The Art of the Deal,” which falsely presented Trump as its primary author, told me that he feels some responsibility for facilitating Trump’s imposture.

From The New Yorker • Dec. 27, 2018

Still, excess hardly matters when there’s so much to enjoy and learn from in this encyclopedic anatomy of American imposture and chicanery.

From Washington Post • Nov. 28, 2017

If you’re really attached to Picabia’s great Dada years, you may try to justify these garish paintings as yet another imposture – as a decades-long ironic commentary on the fiction of originality.

From The Guardian • Nov. 23, 2016

“The Good Lord Bird,” for example, has not only John Brown the abolitionist to drive it along, but a surprising case of gender imposture at its heart as well.

From New York Times • Mar. 28, 2016

The war, therefore, if we judge it by the standards of previous wars, is merely an imposture.

From "1984" by George Orwell