variants
or imposter
as in pretender
one who makes false claims of identity or expertise
the man who claimed to be a prince turned out to be an impostor
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
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Recent Examples of impostor
The only people who never feel like impostors are the real impostors.
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Melody Wilding, Forbes, 30 Oct. 2024
Which was presumably not difficult to do after Daniela, having at last discovered that the man sleeping in her bed for the past month was an impostor, bonked Jason B on the head and shoved him down the basement stairs.
—Chris Klimek, Vulture, 26 June 2024
The prospective mystery series follows Sonny, a teenager who wakes up in the hospital after a car accident to discover that his mom — his only parent, and his best friend — appears to have been replaced by an impostor.
—Matt Webb Mitovich, TVLine, 23 Oct. 2024
Seeing a Santa impostor commit heinous acts amidst the backdrop of powdery white snow and the glow of Christmas lights was jarring and mostly novel for the time, though 1974's Black Christmas was, of course, ahead of that game.
—Steven Thrash, EW.com, 19 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for impostor 
Melody Wilding, Forbes, 30 Oct. 2024
Which was presumably not difficult to do after Daniela, having at last discovered that the man sleeping in her bed for the past month was an impostor, bonked Jason B on the head and shoved him down the basement stairs.
—Chris Klimek, Vulture, 26 June 2024
The prospective mystery series follows Sonny, a teenager who wakes up in the hospital after a car accident to discover that his mom — his only parent, and his best friend — appears to have been replaced by an impostor.
—Matt Webb Mitovich, TVLine, 23 Oct. 2024
Seeing a Santa impostor commit heinous acts amidst the backdrop of powdery white snow and the glow of Christmas lights was jarring and mostly novel for the time, though 1974's Black Christmas was, of course, ahead of that game.
—Steven Thrash, EW.com, 19 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for impostor
Recent Examples of Synonyms for impostor
Noun
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Ball could be that piece to turn the Rockets from pretenders to contenders.Benedict Cosgrove, Newsweek, 19 Dec. 2024
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Just this week alone, there's potential for some of these contenders to fall into the pretender pool.Chase Goodbread, The Tennessean, 20 Nov. 2024
Noun
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Tartuffe, a charismatic charlatan, insinuates himself into the lives of a wealthy family, setting off a chain reaction of disruption and pandemonium.Del Mar Times, San Diego Union-Tribune, 20 Feb. 2024
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But in Wicked, he's elevated to an even more sinister place — not merely a charlatan, but a fraud who has seized power and wants to use the magic of others to create a totalitarian world that answers to his every whim.Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 23 Nov. 2024
Noun
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In this essay for The Paris Review, Simon Wu recounts his experiences pining after, and eventually buying, six designer handbags: some real, some real but used, and one fake.Cheri Lucas Rowlands, Longreads, 17 Dec. 2024
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The 49ers began the game with Purdy exclusively under center, and his play-action fakes to Guerendo created plenty of comfortable throws against the Bears’ defense.Kevin Fishbain, The Athletic, 9 Dec. 2024
Noun
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For years, the FBI has warned cities and police agencies about foreign actors potentially trying to influence politics.Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times, 22 Dec. 2024
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Her co-star and director Justin Baldoni, the outspoken actor highly regarded as one of the industry's fiercest defenders of women.Jay Stahl, USA TODAY, 22 Dec. 2024
Noun
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Gould observed that Jerry Falwell had taken up the mountebank’s mission of William Jennings Bryan.Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 26 July 2024
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Now, this pallid Color Purple epitomizes the artistic dearth of an era when a cultural mountebank like Winfrey uses race and feminist guile to cheat us of America’s most creative achievements.Armond White, National Review, 3 Jan. 2024
Noun
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The nomination to any responsible position of quacks like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. or Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo would put her to that test.Orlando Sentinel and South Florida Sun Sentinel Editorial Boards, Orlando Sentinel, 11 Nov. 2024
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Her favorite recording reminded me of a duck’s quack.Rivka Galchen, The New Yorker, 14 Oct. 2024
Noun
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For a Gen X-er raised on movies that skewered phonies and wannabes, the thought of being a poser was, in the end, far more offensive to his sensibilities than being potentially bland.Rachel Syme, The New Yorker, 23 Dec. 2024
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The answer is important because being a phony is hard work.LaRae Quy, Forbes, 20 Dec. 2024
Noun
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Cody Winn, 27, was indicted by a grand jury on 31 counts of telecommunications fraud and 62 counts of theft, all of which are felony charges, according to a news release from the Clermont County Sheriff's Office.Aaron Valdez, The Enquirer, 27 Dec. 2024
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Five years later, a Times investigation revisited the scandal with a trove of new documents that offer a more complex view of Varsity Blues and deeper questions about universities like USC that claimed to be victims of fraud.Matt Hamilton, Los Angeles Times, 27 Dec. 2024
Thesaurus Entries Near impostor
Cite this Entry
“Impostor.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/impostor. Accessed 5 Jan. 2025.
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