imitating

verb

present participle of imitate
1
as in emulating
to use (someone or something) as the model for one's speech, mannerisms, or behavior teenage musicians who imitate whichever rock stars are hot

Synonyms & Similar Words

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2
as in parodying
to copy or exaggerate (someone or something) in order to make fun of imitating someone's stutter and laughing at them is a cruel thing to do

Synonyms & Similar Words
3
as in copying
to make an exact likeness of a second-rate artist who was notorious for imitating the works of other painters

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of imitating Slop is formulaic and impersonal, the aggregate of everything that is already imitating everything else. — Becca Rothfeld, New Yorker, 29 Aug. 2026 Even white people imitating Black people don’t talk like that anymore. — Alex Ritman, Variety, 28 Aug. 2026 In the limited series, the cast attends a fan convention where they get caught up in a dangerous life-imitating-art situation — a premise drawing comparisons to the beloved sci-fi comedy Galaxy Quest. — James Hibberd, HollywoodReporter, 20 Aug. 2026 Krasner warned potential copycats who were thinking of imitating Hughes' behavior. — Kelsie Cairns , Louis Casiano, FOXNews.com, 20 Aug. 2026 For an industry watching this unfold, the lesson is not that scarcity marketing is a clever new tactic worth imitating everywhere. — Olivia Shalhoup, Forbes.com, 18 Aug. 2026 Philip Sidney’s brackets provided a blueprint for elevated expression, and writers loved imitating him. — Literary Hub, 18 Aug. 2026 The future of flooring, countertops, and walls isn’t about imitating nature. — Better Homes & Gardens, 14 Aug. 2026 At this point, neither the players nor the audience knows one player isn’t getting the music or instructions at all, and is just imitating everyone else. — Tasha Robinson, Vulture, 11 Aug. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for imitating
  1. emulating
  2. parodying
  3. copying
  4. mimicking
  5. mocking
  6. reproducing
  7. doing
  8. replicating
Verb
  • Running back air yards can provide real value Last year, McCaffrey totaled more air yards than any running back in a season since David Johnson in 2016, which means CMC ran vertical routes beyond the line of scrimmage, emulating a wide receiver.
    — Ben Gretch, New York Times, 25 Aug. 2026
  • Instead, Brink and stylist Shiona Turini consistently blend masculine tailoring and feminine silhouettes to create looks worth emulating all autumn long.
    — Emily Tannenbaum, Glamour, 21 Aug. 2026
Definition of emulating
Verb
  • The Onion, meanwhile, has set up its own Infowars webpage on its website, running videos of shows parodying Jones.
    — Jim Vertuno, Fortune, 21 Aug. 2026
  • The popular national chain of gas stations and convenience stores agreed to settle a lawsuit with an oddities store outside Winter Park earlier this year over a collection of merchandise parodying the company’s iconic, bucktoothed logo.
    — Cristóbal Reyes, The Orlando Sentinel, 12 Aug. 2026
Definition of parodying
Verb
  • Amy Winehouse‘s blockbuster album, Back to Black, which introduced her recipe for combining pop, hip-hop, and girl group aesthetics into a sound that pop stars are still copying two decades later, is getting a lavish reissue.
    — Kory Grow, Rolling Stone, 25 Aug. 2026
  • The manipulations ranged from removing background noise to copying and pasting data to fabricate results.
    — John Timmer, ArsTechnica, 25 Aug. 2026
Definition of copying
Verb
  • At the University of Mississippi, a video went viral of a Black woman surrounded by white students and the white students mimicking ape-like motions toward the woman and making monkey-like calls.
    — Irene Wright, USA Today, 28 Aug. 2026
  • Researchers have developed a six-legged robot that can learn to walk by mimicking a stick insect’s movement patterns.
    — Jijo Malayil, Interesting Engineering, 28 Aug. 2026
Definition of mimicking
Verb
  • Former Ferrari president and chairman Luca di Montezemolo joined analysts and investors in mocking the model as ugly and decidedly un-Ferrari-like at a time where other luxury automakers were scaling back their own EV efforts amid low demand.
    — Sasha Rogelberg, Fortune, 28 Aug. 2026
  • Thousands of comments flooded the post mocking the department for spending its time on such a trivial matter.
    — Frank Landymore, Futurism, 27 Aug. 2026
Definition of mocking
Verb
  • To avoid reproducing a rentier economy dependent on transit fees and foreign concessions, the Syrian state must reinvest project revenues in local economies.
    — Jesse Marks, Foreign Affairs, 31 Aug. 2026
  • For as long as a queen is reproducing at a steady clip, all the other females in her colony will be totally infertile.
    — Popular Science Team, Popular Science, 26 Aug. 2026
Definition of reproducing
Verb
  • While doing so has helped millions of individuals access the power of electronics, the shrinking size of transistors is presenting problems at mass manufacturing scales.
    — Ameya Paleja, Interesting Engineering, 27 Aug. 2026
  • Alicia McCalla, 56, a fiction writer who has been doing voice work for five years out of her home in Atlanta, decided to ignore union suggestions and clone her voice.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 27 Aug. 2026
Definition of doing
Verb
  • The show also pokes fun at the late 1990s and early 2000s liberal cultural consensus that was upheld in other popular culture of the time while also both replicating and subverting stereotypes of suburban Southern white Americans.
    — Jordana Rosenfeld, Encyclopedia Britannica, 24 Aug. 2026
  • As for Greathouse replicating his CFP performances of two years ago … that feels like a reach, even for this hypothetical exercise.
    — Pete Sampson, New York Times, 21 Aug. 2026
Definition of replicating

Browse Nearby Words

imitates
imitating
imitation
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Cite this Entry

“Imitating.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/imitating. Accessed 1 Sep. 2026.

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