Synonyms of impersonate

impersonate

verb

im-ˈpər-sə-ˌnāt 

1

as in to imitate

to pretend to be (what one is not) in appearance or behavior

a school intruder was caught trying to impersonate a teacher

Synonyms & Similar Words

• imitate
• mock
• play
• portray
• personate
• pose (as)
• masquerade (as)
• act
• mimic
• parody
• copy
• perform
• ape
• mime
• monkey
• travesty

2

as in to portray

to present a portrayal or performance of

interpreters at the living history museum impersonate figures who are known to have actually lived in the colonial town

Synonyms & Similar Words

• portray
• play
• perform
• depict
• interpret
• do
• represent
• act
• render
• enact
• imitate
• dramatize
• mimic
• act out
• masquerade
• playact
• take on
• pose (as)
• ape
• ham
• role-play
• mime
• pantomime
• overact
• underplay
• star (in)
• overplay
• clown
• coact
• costar

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of impersonate

Arquette, 55, plays her brother Rob, who opts to also go back to high school while impersonating a teenager. — Virginia Chamlee, PEOPLE, 14 Sep. 2026

In one scene, Simpson put on a prosthetic nose and a face of white makeup to impersonate an elderly, white man eager to call the numbers at a bingo game. — Kalia Richardson, USA Today, 9 Sep. 2026

The agents also allegedly impersonated a moderator on the wiki, using an identical Cyrillic е character in the admin's username instead of the Latin one. — Will McCurdy, PC Magazine, 6 Sep. 2026

An attacker using a cloned voice to impersonate an executive on a call to the help desk isn’t defeated by a Zero Trust slide deck. — Michael Flannery, Forbes.com, 4 Sep. 2026