imitate
Americanverb (used with object)
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imitates,
present (3rd person singular)
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imitated,
past participle, past
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imitating
present participle
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to follow or endeavor to follow as a model or example.
to imitate an author's style; to imitate an older brother.
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to mimic; impersonate.
The students imitated the teacher behind her back.
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to make a copy of; reproduce closely.
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to have or assume the appearance of; simulate; resemble.
verb
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to try to follow the manner, style, character, etc, of or take as a model
many writers imitated the language of Shakespeare
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to pretend to be or to impersonate, esp for humour; mimic
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to make a copy or reproduction of; duplicate; counterfeit
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to make or be like; resemble or simulate
her achievements in politics imitated her earlier successes in business
Synonym Usage
Imitate, copy, duplicate, reproduce all mean to follow or try to follow an example or pattern. Imitate is the general word for the idea: to imitate someone's handwriting, behavior. To copy is to make a fairly exact imitation of an original creation: to copy a sentence, a dress, a picture. To duplicate is to produce something that exactly resembles or corresponds to something else; both may be originals: to duplicate the terms of two contracts. To reproduce is to make a likeness or reconstruction of an original: to reproduce a 16th-century theater.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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imitabilitynoun
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imitatornoun
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overimitateverb (used with object)
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preimitateverb (used with object)
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imitableadjective
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nonimitatingadjective
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unimitatedadjective
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unimitatingadjective
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well-imitatedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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imitatesimple
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imitatessimple
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have imitatedperfect
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has imitatedperfect
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am imitatingprogressive
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are imitatingprogressive
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is imitatingprogressive
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have been imitatingperfect progressive
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has been imitatingperfect progressive
Past
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imitatedsimple
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had imitatedperfect
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was imitatingprogressive
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were imitatingprogressive
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had been imitatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of imitate
First recorded in 1525–35; from Latin imitātus, past participle of imitārī “to copy,” presumably a frequentative akin to the base of imāgō image
Explanation
When you imitate someone, you copy them. Youth marketers capitalize on kids' desire to imitate––tweens imitate teens, teens imitate young adults, and marketers supply the product lines to make it easy. Humans learn by imitating others. Babies carefully watch their caregivers' lips, learning to imitate the movements they make to create language sounds. Writers often begin their careers imitating the style of older writers they admire.
Vocabulary lists containing imitate
Jim Burke's Academic Vocabulary List
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The Watsons Go to Birmingham
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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:
She doesn’t imitate being the mother of the blues, as her character is known.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 2, 2026
“AI should help people create something new, not imitate someone else’s work,” Suno Chief Executive Mikey Shulman said in a blog post on the company’s website in August.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 2026
Unitree’s humanoid robots can walk, run and climb and “can imitate & reinforce the learning drive” said the company, referring to algorithms that train the robot’s artificial intelligence as it undertakes tasks.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 19, 2026
Even with Kennedy looming over the counter more than sous-cheffing beside it, “The Real Food Show” briefly becomes the cooking program it has been dressed to imitate.
From Salon ● Aug. 5, 2026
I put it on over my Dodgers cap and imitate J. R. Richard’s high-kick motion.
From "A High Five for Glenn Burke" by Phil Bildner
The hopefuls included the daughter of late autocrat Alberto Fujimori, a comedian who imitates his rivals, a fugitive, and a business magnate who has adopted the nickname Porky because of his chubby face.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 13, 2026
We’ll all find out together if, with the original stock market superstition, life actually imitates art.
From Barron's ● Mar. 13, 2026
Instead of copying part of a virus or bacterium, this new vaccine imitates the communication signals immune cells exchange during infection.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 23, 2026
While AI-generated music is rife online, it's often released under fictitious names, or imitates big stars, but it doesn't normally appear on their official streaming pages.
From BBC ● Aug. 22, 2025
She gets up and imitates the host and makes a joke in Urdu.
From "Amina's Song" by Hena Khan
“So many of Flynn’s films are supposedly his life being imitated in art, and that was kind of like the last instance of that, in a very sordid way,” O’Brien said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 2, 2026
That strategy was imitated across industries, making complex goods affordable and helping establish the modern middle class.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026
It featured a manipulated video of former Brazil striker Ronaldo which imitated his voice.
From BBC ● Mar. 2, 2026
Often imitated, never duplicated, a ring from Spinelli Kilcollin is both classic and subversive enough to be interesting for decades to come.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 4, 2025
And I thought how some of them imitated the master.
From "Flying Through Water" by Mamle Wolo
Barnett, 41, returned to Radio 4's Today programme on Wednesday morning, explaining she had been absent in recent weeks because she was in hospital "in a case of life imitating work".
From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026
Mr. Daniels, remodeled with heavy hair and makeup, still only vaguely resembles his subject, though he does have an endearing way of imitating Reagan’s tendency to tilt his head this way and that.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
He learned to stop imitating his favorite writers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026
According to the study, this is the first documented case of a spider imitating a parasitic fungus that infects other spiders.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 17, 2026
“The kids are just imitating what they’ve seen adults doing,” he said.
From "Kindred" by Octavia Butler
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.
