Dictionary

impostor en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ɪmˈpɒstə/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ɪmˈpɑstɚ/ (General-American)
• (General-American) audio

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French imposteur, respelled in the Latin manner; ultimately from Latin impositor, agent form of Latin imponere (“to impose”).

Meanings

1. Someone who attempts to deceive by using an assumed name or identity.
   • "It were dishonour in me to yield. I will not play the part of an impostor, whom my uncle must despise even while he screens. No; these estates are his right: let him take them; I will not buy them with his daughter's hand." 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “The Consent”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 153:
   • Then again these figures take no account of the thousands of beggars who travel free in India. Many of these are religious "Sadhus", dressed often in nothing but a loin-cloth, or even less, and their bodies smeared with ashes. A large number of these men are nothing but impostors, but the Hindu railway staff usually are afraid to interfere with them. 1953 November, 'Erca', “Ticket Frauds in the East”, in Railway Magazine, page 778:
   • “I said he had a criminal face.” “He can't help his face.” “He can help being a crook and an impostor. Calls himself a butler, does he? The police could shake that story. He's no more a butler than I am.” 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XX, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:
2. A sprite or animation integrated into a three-dimensional scene to look like part of the 3D world.
3. A term referenced in an unusual grammatical person.
   • Interestingly, Wang shows that Chinese allows the appearance of an indexical pronoun alongside the imposter, as in (31). 2014, Daniel Kaufman, “The Syntax of Indonesian Imposters”, in Chris Collins, editor, Cross-Linguistic Studies of Imposters and Pronominal Agreement, →ISBN, page 105:
   • One possibility is that mothers of HR [higher-risk] infants frequently use non-pronoun forms in place of pronouns, as in the impostor uses noted above. 2018, Angela Xiaoxue He, Rhiannon Luyster, Sudha Arunachalam, “Personal pronoun usage in maternal input to infants at high vs. low risk for autism spectrum disorder”, in First Language, volume 38, number 5, →DOI:

Forms

Coordinates

billboard

Deriveds

impostorism · impostor syndrome · impostor phenomenon · impastor · impostress · imposterous · impostorship · supernova impostor · impostrix

Hyponyms

quack

Synonyms

impersonator

Translations (61)

ko 사기꾼 (someone who uses an assumed identity) · pl samozwaniec (someone who uses an assumed identity) · ro impostor (someone who uses an assumed identity) · sv bedragare (someone who uses an assumed identity) · ka თვითმარქვია (someone who uses an assumed identity) · cs podvodník (someone who uses an assumed identity) · ro impostoare (someone who uses an assumed identity) · nn svindlar (someone who uses an assumed identity) · nl bedrieger (someone who uses an assumed identity) · es impostora (someone who uses an assumed identity) · ga mealltóir (someone who uses an assumed identity) · nb bedrager (someone who uses an assumed identity) · pt impostor (someone who uses an assumed identity) · pt impostora (someone who uses an assumed identity) · la planus (someone who uses an assumed identity) · fr imposteuse (someone who uses an assumed identity) · gl impostor (someone who uses an assumed identity) · be самазва́нец (someone who uses an assumed identity) · hu imposztor (someone who uses an assumed identity) · cs napodobitel (someone who uses an assumed identity) · cmn 冒充者 (someone who uses an assumed identity) · lt apsimetėlis (someone who uses an assumed identity) · fr impostrice (someone who uses an assumed identity) · pl hochsztapler (someone who uses an assumed identity) · sh samozvanac (someone who uses an assumed identity) · uk самозва́нка (someone who uses an assumed identity) · hi कपटी (someone who uses an assumed identity) · cmn 騙子 /骗子 (someone who uses an assumed identity) · nl bedriegster (someone who uses an assumed identity) · fi toiseksi tekeytyjä (someone who uses an assumed identity) · de Betrüger (someone who uses an assumed identity) · fo svindlari (someone who uses an assumed identity) · hu szélhámos (someone who uses an assumed identity) · ca impostor (someone who uses an assumed identity) · fr imposteur (someone who uses an assumed identity) · eo trompanto (someone who uses an assumed identity) · da bedrager (someone who uses an assumed identity) · fi huijari (someone who uses an assumed identity) · ota آینهجی (someone who uses an assumed identity) · fo kritlari (someone who uses an assumed identity) · it impostore (someone who uses an assumed identity) · hi ढोंगी (someone who uses an assumed identity) · de Hochstapler (someone who uses an assumed identity) · mk само́званец (someone who uses an assumed identity) · lt apgavikas (someone who uses an assumed identity) · mk и́змамник (someone who uses an assumed identity) · es impostor (someone who uses an assumed identity) · bg измамник (someone who uses an assumed identity) · uk самозва́нець (someone who uses an assumed identity) · bg мошеник (someone who uses an assumed identity) · he מתחזה (someone who uses an assumed identity) · ru самозва́нец (someone who uses an assumed identity) · hu csaló (someone who uses an assumed identity) · fo svikari (someone who uses an assumed identity) · cs hochštapler (someone who uses an assumed identity) · sh varalica (someone who uses an assumed identity) · lv viltvārdis (someone who uses an assumed identity) · km អ្នកក្លែងបន្លំ (someone who uses an assumed identity) · eu iruzurti (someone who uses an assumed identity) · ja 偽者 (someone who uses an assumed identity) · pl impostor (someone who uses an assumed identity)