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:
They engineered carefully controlled porous materials that imitate the way natural foams scatter light while also drawing inspiration from water-repellent surfaces found on leaves and flower petals.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 10, 2026
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
I grabbed Roberto’s hands and started dancing, trying to imitate some of the moves I had witnessed at the Vets.
From "Breaking Through" by Francisco Jiménez
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
The scene she depicts even imitates her real life: Kahlo actually kept a smaller, papier-mâché skeleton atop her own canopy bed in Mexico City as a reassuring symbol of death’s ubiquity.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 21, 2025
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
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
Life imitated art for Cyrus, who became a global pop star off the back of the show's success.
From BBC ● Feb. 18, 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
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
Everything the dog did, he imitated, flopping down at last with his tongue lolling out.
From "Bridge to Terabithia" by Katherine Paterson
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
“I’m pretty good at imitating what TV stars do.”
From "Dog Squad" by Chris Grabenstein
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.
