IMPERSONATION

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does impersonation mean? 

• IMPERSONATION (noun)
  The noun IMPERSONATION has 3 senses:

1. a representation of a person that is exaggerated for comic effect

2. pretending to be another person

3. imitating the mannerisms of another person

  Familiarity information: IMPERSONATION used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• IMPERSONATION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A representation of a person that is exaggerated for comic effect

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

caricature; imitation; impersonation

Hypernyms ("impersonation" is a kind of...):

humor; humour; wit; witticism; wittiness (a message whose ingenuity or verbal skill or incongruity has the power to evoke laughter)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "impersonation"):

mock-heroic (a satirical imitation of heroic verse)

burlesque; lampoon; mockery; parody; pasquinade; put-on; send-up; sendup; spoof; takeoff; travesty (a composition that imitates or misrepresents somebody's style, usually in a humorous way)

Derivation:

impersonate (represent another person with comic intentions)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Pretending to be another person

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

impersonation; imposture

Hypernyms ("impersonation" is a kind of...):

deceit; deception; dissembling; dissimulation (the act of deceiving)

Derivation:

impersonate (pretend to be someone you are not; sometimes with fraudulent intentions)

impersonate (assume or act the character of)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Imitating the mannerisms of another person

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

impersonation; personation

Hypernyms ("impersonation" is a kind of...):

acting; performing; playacting; playing (the performance of a part or role in a drama)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "impersonation"):

apery; mimicry (the act of mimicking; imitative behavior)

Derivation:

impersonate (pretend to be someone you are not; sometimes with fraudulent intentions)

impersonate (assume or act the character of)

 Context examples 

With lips compressed and clouded brow, he strode up and down the oaken floor, the very genius and impersonation of asceticism, while the great bell still thundered and clanged above his head.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It was not that he had lost his good looks, or his old bearing of a gentleman—for that he had not—but the thing that struck me most, was, that with the evidences of his native superiority still upon him, he should submit himself to that crawling impersonation of meanness, Uriah Heep.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)