imitate

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• 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^[1]:

     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), 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)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• 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: please add this translation if you can
• 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)
• 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, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “imitate”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

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Esperanto

Adverb

imitate

1. present adverbial passive participle of imiti

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Italian

Etymology 1

Verb

imitate

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

Etymology 2

Participle

imitate f pl

1. feminine plural of imitato

Anagrams

• ematiti

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Latin

Participle

(deprecated template usage) imitāte

1. vocative masculine singular of imitātus