imitate

imitate

English

Etymology

From Latin imitatus, past participle of imito (“to copy, portray, imitate”).

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɪmɪteɪt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Verb

imitate (third-person singular simple present imitates, present participle imitating, simple past and past participle imitated)

1. To follow as a model or a pattern; to make a copy, counterpart or semblance of.
   • 1870, Shirley Hibberd, Rustic Adornments for Homes of Taste, page 170:

     Another bird quickly learned to imitate the song of a canary that was mated with it, but as the parrakeet improved in the performance the canary degenerated, and came at last to mingle the other bird's harsh chitterings with its own proper music.

   • 2019 August 21, Tik Root, “Inside the Race to Build the World's First Commercial Octopus Farm”, in Time‎:

     The room was dark and cool, lit with a dim red light. “This was designed to imitate a cave,” said Rosas.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:imitate

Antonyms

• create

Related terms

• imitation
• imitative
• imitable
• imitator

Translations

to follow as a model

Arabic: Egyptian Arabic: قلد‎ (ʾallid) Armenian: ընդօրինակել (hy) (əndōrinakel) Asturian: imitar Belarusian: перайма́ць impf (pjerajmácʹ), імітава́ць impf (imitavácʹ) Bulgarian: подража́вам (bg) impf (podražávam), имити́рам (bg) impf or pf (imitíram) Burmese: please add this translation if you can Catalan: imitar (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 模擬／模拟 (zh) (mónǐ) Czech: napodobit impf Dutch: nabootsen (nl), imiteren (nl) Estonian: matkima Finnish: matkia (fi) French: imiter (fr) Galician: imitar, arremedar Georgian: please add this translation if you can German: imitieren (de) Hungarian: utánoz (hu), imitál Italian: imitare (it) Japanese: 倣う (ja) (ならう, narau), 真似る (ja) (まねる, maneru), 模倣する (ja) (もほうする, mohō suru) Khmer: ត្រាប់ (km) (trap), ធ្វើត្រាប់តាម (thvəə trap taam) Korean: 흉내내다 (hyungnaenaeda), 본뜨다 (ko) (bontteuda) Latin: imitor Malay: tiru Maore Comorian: utiba Maori: whakatau Old English: onhyrian Polish: naśladować (pl) impf, udawać (pl) impf, imitować (pl) impf Portuguese: imitar (pt) Russian: подража́ть (ru) impf (podražátʹ), имити́ровать (ru) impf (imitírovatʹ) Slovene: oponašati, posnemati (sl), imitirati Spanish: imitar (es) Swahili: iga Swedish: imitera (sv) (1), imitera (sv), härma (sv) (2) Telugu: అనుకరించు (te) (anukariñcu) Thai: เลียน (th) (liian), เลียนแบบ (liian-bɛ̀ɛp) Turkish: taklit etmek (tr), (mimic), örnek almak (tr),(to follow as a model) Ukrainian: удава́ти impf (udaváty), наслі́дувати impf (naslíduvaty), імітува́ти (uk) impf (imituváty) Vietnamese: nhái (vi), bắt chước (vi), theo đòi (vi)

Further reading

• imitate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• imitate in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911

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Esperanto

Adverb

imitate

1. present adverbial passive participle of imiti

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Italian

Verb

imitate

1. inflection of imitare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative

Participle

imitate f pl

1. feminine plural of imitato

Anagrams

• ematiti

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Latin

Participle

imitāte

1. vocative masculine singular of imitātus