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Impostor definition

ĭm-pŏstər
impostors
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Someone who attempts to deceive by using an assumed name or identity.
noun
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A person who pretends to be someone or something that he or she is not, as to deceive or cheat others.
noun
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1
One who engages in deception under an assumed name or identity.
noun
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2
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Other Word Forms

Noun

Singular:
impostor
Plural:
impostors

Origin of impostor

  • French imposteur from Latin impostor one who assigns a name from impostus variant of impositus past participle of impōnere to place upon impose

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • From Middle French imposteur

    From Wiktionary

Impostor Sentence Examples

  • An impostor, who claimed to be a son of Antiochus Epiphanes, Alexander Balas (reigned 150-145), was installed as king by Ptolemy Philometor and given Ptolemy's daughter Cleopatra to wife, but Alexander proved to be dissolute and incapable, and when Demetrius, the son of Demetrius I., was brought back to Syria by Cretan condottieri, Ptolemy transferred his support and Cleopatra to the rightful heir.

  • The chief con spirator, Shuiski, seized the power and was elected tsar by an Assembly composed of his faction, but neither Shuiski, the ambitious boyars, nor the pillaging Cossacks, nor the German mercenaries were satisfied with the change, and soon a new impostor, likewise calling himself Dimitri, son of Tsar Ivan, came forward as the rightful heir.

  • She found the impostor useful as a means of injuring the king of England.

  • English impostor, was probably the son of a tradesman at Oxford.

  • In 35 he dispersed a number of Samaritans, who had assembled near Mt Gerizim at the bidding of an impostor, in order to see the temple vessels buried there by Moses.

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