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:
Researchers also use sophisticated computational techniques to distinguish different kinds of particle interactions and reject events that imitate the signatures expected from dark matter.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 4, 2026
Then, Grossman was paired with Zoe Wohlfeld and instructed to imitate boiling milk.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 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 stood at attention and held my arms out and did my best to imitate a menorah.
From "Milkweed" by Jerry Spinelli
The lawsuit says the song imitates “Isbell’s characteristic clear male vocals and country twang.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 2026
Researchers have created a hollow CdS@polydopamine nanoreactor that imitates two important features of living cells.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 6, 2026
We’ll all find out together if, with the original stock market superstition, life actually imitates art.
From Barron's ● Mar. 13, 2026
The company further alleges that Trader Joe’s version imitates the packaging and colors on the boxes of Uncrustables.
From Salon ● Oct. 15, 2025
Nico imitates his cousin’s moves and looks so ridiculous when he does a little spin that I burst out laughing.
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
Life imitated art when, in 2019, Van Der Beek fulfilled the prophecy foretold by a “Don’t Trust the B—” storyline and became a contestant on “Dancing With the Stars.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 12, 2026
Ms. Greene is, in every sense, a singular politician, mercifully neither imitated nor imitable.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 24, 2025
He said he hoped that the tax “would be an example for the world, to be imitated in many places.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 13, 2025
I busied myself by studying the shadows on the ground, the corners of buildings, and how, as people crossed the courtyard, their shadows imitated everything they did, just as younger children imitated older ones.
From "Tasting the Sky" by Ibtisam Barakat
Most of the porcelain was made for the European market, underscoring a subtext of cross-fertilization, already stated by Islamic ceramics imitating Chinese blue and white.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026
"Triple threat. Go big or go home. Life imitating art."
From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026
Come on, play something,’” Hopkins said, imitating the wince he gave Fenton at the time.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 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
However, keep in mind that a child’s vocal apparatus is still developing, and imitating adult singing with scoops, chest voice, or belting is affected singing and not natural.
From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin
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.
