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to imitate

to imitate

186 2.7
Copy the way someone speaks, looks, or acts
  • verb
  • /ˈɪməˌteɪt/
translation icon : imitar
  • The children love to imitate their favorite cartoon characters during playtime.
  • imitate children
  • attempt to imitate
  • imitate behavior

And then he says you must either imitate them or hate them.

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Examples

  • I find it hard to imitate the behavior of other people.

  • Human infants are born with "mirror neurons"; that's why babies imitate the faces and sounds of those around them.

    Academic text (2011)
  • And then he says you must either imitate them or hate them.

  • So can we choose not to imitate other people when we're young?

  • And the young pick that up and they imitate the parents and they learn.

  • You imitate someone who does pretty well though.

  • At first, junior students listen to the tapes and imitate what they have heard.

    Academic text (1992)
  • For example, young children often acquire books and imitate adults by turning pages and reading aloud.

    Academic text (2008)
  • Ask the class to perform the passage and imitate the modeled passage.

    Academic text (2011)
  • As she watched the ballet dancers, she tried to imitate their graceful movements.

Synonyms

to copy
vsto imitate
177 1.0

Do something the same way someone else does

is broader, covering general matching of actions or behavior
to mimic
vsto imitate
77 3.1

To copy someone's actions or voice to make people laugh

is neutral and lacks the clear joking or mocking purpose
to impersonate
vsto imitate
70 7.2

Pretend to be another person by copying their looks, voice or actions

is broader, not always involving acting as a specific person
to replicate
vsto imitate
  • Specialized
66 4.9

To make an exact copy of something, often in a lab

is everyday matching of actions rather than precise technical reproduction
to reproduce
vsto imitate
41 4.0

To make a copy of something that looks like the original

is about matching actions or behavior rather than producing physical duplicates
to simulate
vsto imitate
22 5.5

Copy someone's voice or actions to seem like them

is direct matching of real actions rather than staged or artificial versions
to mime
vsto imitate
2 5.0

To copy someone's actions to make a joke

is general action matching, not limited to silent staged performance

Antonyms

153 3.8

To start or create something

39 5.5

Bring in new ideas or ways of doing things

How Accurate

to replicate
  • Specialized
66 4.9
to reproduce
41 4.0
to imitate
186 2.7

Surface Forms

imitate infinitive
imitated past
imitated past participle
imitating present participle
imitates third person singular

Morphology

imitate = imit + ate

Although the verb ends in the productive suffix '-ate', the stem 'imit' is not a recognisable English base, so learners cannot reliably infer the meaning from the parts.

Etymology

Imitate comes from the Latin imitari, which means 'to copy'. Think of it as making an imitation of someone — copying their voice, look, or behavior, so to imitate is to copy someone or something.