mimic

English

Alternative forms

• mimick

Etymology

From Latin mīmicus, from Ancient Greek μῑμικός (mīmikós, “belonging to mimes”), from μῖμος (mîmos, “imitator, actor”); see mime.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɪm.ɪk/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪmɪk

Verb

mimic (third-person singular simple present mimics, present participle mimicking, simple past and past participle mimicked)

1. To imitate, especially in order to ridicule.
   • 2013 June 1, “A better waterworks”, in The Economist‎^[1], volume 407, number 8838, page 5 (Technology Quarterly):

     An artificial kidney these days still means a refrigerator-sized dialysis machine. Such devices mimic the way real kidneys cleanse blood and eject impurities and surplus water as urine.

2. (biology) To take on the appearance of another, for protection or camouflage.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:imitate

Translations

to imitate, especially in order to ridicule

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Azerbaijani: yamsılamaq (az)
• Basque: imitatu
• Bulgarian: подражавам (bg) (podražavam), имитирам (bg) (imitiram)
• Catalan: escarnir (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 模仿 (zh) (Mófǎng)

• Czech: imitovat
• Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: imitoida (fi), matkia (fi)
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: nachahmen (de), nachäffen (de)
• Hebrew: please add this translation if you can
• Hungarian: utánoz (hu)
• Icelandic: herma eftir
• Japanese: please add this translation if you can
• Khmer: ត្រាប់ (km) (trap)
• Korean: please add this translation if you can
• Latvian: atdarināt
• Lithuanian: please add this translation if you can
• Maori: tāwhai
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Norwegian: herme etter
• Oromo: akkeessuu
• Polish: przedrzeźniać
• Portuguese: imitar (pt)
• Punjabi: ਸਾਂਗ ਲਾਉਣਾ (pa) (sāṅg lāuṇā)
• Romanian: mima (ro), imita (ro)
• Russian: имити́ровать (ru) (imitírovatʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian: oponašati (sh)
• Slovene: posnemati (sl), oponašati
• Spanish: arremedar (es)
• Swedish: härma (sv)
• Thai: เลียน (th) (liian)
• Turkish: taklit etmek (tr), öykünmek (tr)
• Vietnamese: bắt chước (vi), nhại (vi)
• Welsh: dynwared (cy)

biology: to take on the appearance of another, for protection or camouflage

• Bulgarian: мимикрирам (mimikriram)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 拟态 (zh) (Nǐtài)

• Finnish: naamioitua (fi)
• Polish: imitować (pl)
• Portuguese: mimetizar (pt)
• Russian: имити́ровать (ru) (imitírovatʹ)
• Slovene: posnemati (sl)
• Ukrainian: імітува́ти (uk) impf (imituváty)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Vietnamese: ^{(please verify)} nhái (vi), ^{(please verify)} bắt chước (vi)

Noun

mimic (plural mimics)

1. A person who practices mimicry; especially:
   1. A mime.
   2. A comic who does impressions.

      Synonym: impressionist

2. An entity that mimics another entity, such as a disease that resembles another disease in its signs and symptoms; see the great imitator.
3. An imitation.
   • 2005, Helen Oyeyemi, The Icarus Girl, Bloomsbury, page 190:

     Jess jumped slightly at hearing Tillyʼs extremely accurate mimic of her voice.

Synonyms

• mimicker

Derived terms

• mimic beetle
• mimic function
• mimic glass lizard
• mimic octopus
• Moloney's mimic bat

 

Translations

a person who practices mimicry, or mime

• Bulgarian: имитатор (bg) m (imitator)
• Finnish: miimikko (fi)
• Irish: aithriseoir m
• Norman: d'ganneux m
• Portuguese: mímico (pt) m
• Punjabi: ਸਾਂਗੀ (pa) m (sāṅgī)
• Russian: мим (ru) m (mim), имита́тор (ru) m (imitátor)

imitation — see imitation

Adjective

mimic (not comparable)

1. Pertaining to mimicry; imitative.
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

     I think every man is cloied and wearied, with seeing so many apish and mimicke trickes, that juglers teach their Dogges, as the dances, where they misse not one cadence of the sounds or notes they heare […].

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book V”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     Oft, in her absence, mimic fancy wakes / To imitate her.

   • 1800, William Wordsworth, There was a Boy:

     And there, with fingers interwoven, both hands
     Pressed closely palm to palm and to his mouth
     Uplifted, he, as through an instrument,
     Blew mimic hootings to the silent owls,
     That they might answer him.

2. Mock, pretended.
3. (mineralogy) Imitative; characterized by resemblance to other forms; applied to crystals which by twinning resemble simple forms of a higher grade of symmetry.

Related terms

• mime
• mimicable
• mimicry

Further reading

• chapter MIMIC, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• chapter MIMIC, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French mimique.

Adjective

mimic m or n (feminine singular mimică, masculine plural mimici, feminine and neuter plural mimice)

1. mimic

Declension

Declension of mimic

		singular			plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine	masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative/ accusative	indefinite	mimic		mimică	mimici	mimice
	definite	mimicul		mimica	mimicii	mimicele
genitive/ dative	indefinite	mimic		mimice	mimici	mimice
	definite	mimicului		mimicei	mimicilor	mimicelor