Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. One who engages in deception under an assumed name or identity.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. One who imposes on others; a person who practises deception, usually under a false guise or an assumed character.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. One who imposes upon others; a person who assumes a character or title not his own, for the purpose of deception; a pretender.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a person who makes deceitful pretenses
Etymologies
- French imposteur, from Latin impostor, one who assigns a name, from impostus, variant of impositus, past participle of impōnere, to place upon; see impose. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The case was the first of its kind for the Bay City office, Flattery said, but the medal-wearing impostor is not uncommon.”
“Phony heroes have been around as long as wars, and one way to spot an impostor is to listen to their exaggerated exploits.”
“The Schantags issue "fraud alerts" through e-mail when an impostor is found.”
“Kutz has ever attended BUD/S training, let alone graduated, so your suspected impostor is indeed a fraud.”
“Glad that thise eye winking impostor is fading quickly into the Alaskan sunset.”
“I almost wanted to just bring in impostor cats for them to rescue just to validate their efforts.”
“He is vat you call impostor, cracked; he has vollowed me from Germany.”
“At the word impostor, Paul seemed about to speak, but a wave of”
“I’m sorry if I used the wrong choice of words, but impostor is not a racist word.”
“But the other traitor is in my hands — I am yet King enough — have yet an empire roomy enough — for the punishment of the quack salving, word mongering, star gazing, lie coining impostor, who has at once made a prisoner and a dupe of me! —”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘impostor’.
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POL - scandalous (single words only)
acolyte, archrival, backhander, backlash, baksheesh, bashing, boo, bribery, cadre, chicanery, clash, coercion and 256 more...
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Bad Options
words for those who commit particular crimes: i.e., bank robber, arsonist, etc.
liar, cheat, traitor, arsonist, felon, braggard, thief, profiteer, impostor, phony, fraud, culprit and 213 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2057 more...
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Copies of copies
replica, ersatz, synthetic, artificial, clone, simulacrum, reproduction, facsimile, carbon copy, twin, enantiomorph, antimer and 37 more...
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dharma66's list
words that pique my interest either by meaning, pronunciation, or spelling, and words that otherwise tickle my fancy!!
pique, elusive, serendipity, nefarious, redundant, pseudoscientific, obsequious, flack, quandary, impervious, perchance, translucent and 168 more...
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nominative case collection
wine stopper, pyre, roster, hamper, moleskin, elastic, pinnacle, facsimile, nook, plonk, contortionist, dismay and 342 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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Daily
Daily Vocab List
lull, pious, lurid, objurgate, insurgent, lewd, patio, onus, lampoon, geisha, larceny, maim and 206 more...
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Not Quite The Real Thang
masquerade, sham, counterfeit, shyster, phoney, bogus, pseudo, artificial, fabricated, mock, concocted, false and 158 more...
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Nicknames Robin Should Use in Jira
Because he's running out of ideas.
sparkle, plugger, boffo, knobber, bindypop, zork, go, Tamaguchi, impostor
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zetadiction
words that embody life
hydrae, kleptocracy, curmudgeon, wordie, risotto, qi, pulchritudinous, micropolitan, schadenfreude, neolithic, experimentalist, zeta and 477 more...
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Misdirector's Cut
Hey...
—> —> —> —> —> —> —> —> —> —> —> —> —> —> —> LOOK OVER THERE! —> —> —>
...sneaky, legerdemain, flimflam, unwittingly, clandestine, hornswoggle, sleveen, subversion, espionage, incognito, subreption, gank and 147 more...
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A Scanner Darkly (2006)
Words from a 2006 'A Scanner Darkly' film.
aphid, scramble, purport, toll, lurch, cold turkey, pharmacopoeia, vasoconstriction, inordinate, front money, meth, providence and 67 more...
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it is not truth that matters, but vic...
every kind of liar.
prevaricator, falsifier, fabricator, perjurer, fabulist, fibber, hypocrite, tartuffe, pharisee, phony, charlatan, traitor and 13 more...
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in which i have trouble with spelling
Words that always seem to give me a hard time when proofreading.
Tweets
Looking for tweets for impostor.
sionnach Apparently the root verb is "impose". Who knew? Mar 29, 2010