as in to play
to pretend to be (what one is not) in appearance or behavior
likes to personate the man of the world, but he's still the small-town hick that he always was
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of personate
Till’s motifs swept though the ensemble, as horns, clarinets, bassoons, violin all had a chance to personate the character.
—
By Libby Hanssen, kansascity.com, 3 June 2017
By Libby Hanssen, kansascity.com, 3 June 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for personate
Verb
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Almost two full years later, on the verge of making the postseason, the Padres returned to the ballpark that is home to one of baseball’s worst teams and continued to play like a team that seems bent on disappointing in its own spectacular way.—
Kevin Acee,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
20 Sep. 2025
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Yet, Ruud just kept right on playing good defense — racing around Laver Cup’s black hardcourt — and somehow managing to return serves that reached 130 mph.—
Jim Harrington,
Mercury News,
20 Sep. 2025
Verb
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The account that had impersonated him, after blowing up on @joma_gc, deactivated and removed all of its information from the page.—
Eva Roytburg,
Fortune,
16 Sep. 2025
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Hortman was killed alongside her husband in their Brooklyn Park home by a man allegedly impersonating a police officer.—
Jesus Mesa,
MSNBC Newsweek,
16 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Later in the game, when officials did call a travel on Atlanta, Clark was seen imitating the gesture again, playfully.—
Jackson Thompson,
FOXNews.com,
17 Sep. 2025
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Student imitates Charlie Kirk's death and mocks him, goes up to statue where TPUSA members are and imitates his death again, and spits near them.—
Nick Mordowanec,
MSNBC Newsweek,
16 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Many on the right have reacted strongly to those perceived to be celebrating or mocking Kirk's death, calling for consequences such as losing their jobs or in Omar's case, being censured.—
Alia Shoaib,
MSNBC Newsweek,
18 Sep. 2025
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Comedy Central responded to Kirk’s killing by pulling the episode mocking him from its regular rotation.—
Dominick Mastrangelo,
The Hill,
17 Sep. 2025
Verb
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The uniformly white Norman aggressors are portrayed as proto-colonialists.—
Will Collins,
The Washington Examiner,
19 Sep. 2025
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However, his attorney, Christopher Frost, issued a statement via a spokesperson, portraying his client as the unwitting mark of both Mauriss and Robinson—a characterization both of those men would strongly dispute.—
Daniel Libit,
Sportico.com,
18 Sep. 2025
Verb
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By turning a blind eye to scalpers, even giving them the tools to bypass limits and harvest tickets, Live Nation has acted as the promoter, the primary ticket seller, the artists’ manager, and the scalper.—
Walden Green,
Pitchfork,
19 Sep. 2025
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Each has talked up and acted upon the notion that universities’ illiberal and often hypocritical approaches to issues concerning free speech and antisemitism need to change.—
David Mark,
The Washington Examiner,
19 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Personate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/personate. Accessed 21 Sep. 2025.
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