IMPOSTER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does imposter mean? 

• IMPOSTER (noun)
  The noun IMPOSTER has 1 sense:

1. a person who makes deceitful pretenses

  Familiarity information: IMPOSTER used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• IMPOSTER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A person who makes deceitful pretenses

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

fake; faker; fraud; imposter; impostor; pretender; pseud; pseudo; role player; sham; shammer

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

beguiler; cheat; cheater; deceiver; slicker; trickster (someone who leads you to believe something that is not true)

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

name dropper (someone who pretends that famous people are his/her friends)

ringer (a contestant entered in a competition under false pretenses)

 Context examples 

John Silver, he said, you're a prodigious villain and imposter—a monstrous imposter, sir.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

A psychotic disorder characterized by the patient's belief that acquaintances or closely related persons have been replaced by doubles or imposters.

(Capgras Syndrome, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

Visual recognition appears intact but familiar persons are thought be imposters, that is, they appear similar or identical to known individuals but are not.

(Capgras Syndrome, NCI Thesaurus)

We have only to return home and report him as the brazen imposter that he is.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Sir John Mandeville redivivus—Cagliostro—all the imposters and bullies in history.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"It proves," he roared, with a sudden blast of fury, "that you are the damnedest imposter in London—a vile, crawling journalist, who has no more science than he has decency in his composition!"

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)