Adjacent Words

Imitation definitions

	Tweet

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

IMITA'TION, n. [L. imitatio; imitor, to imitate.]
1. The act of following in manner, or of copying in form; the act of making the similitude of any thing, or of attempting a resemblance. By the imitation of bad men or of evil examples, we are apt to contract vicious habits. In the imitation of natural forms and colors,we are often unsuccessful. Imitation in music, says Rousseau, is a reiteration of the same air, or of one which is similar, in several parts where it is repeated by one after the other, either in unison, or at the distance of a fourth, a fifth, a third, or any interval whatever. Imitation in oratory, is an endeavor to resemble a speaker or writer in the qualities which we propose to ourselves as patterns.
2. That which is made or produced as a copy; likeness; resemblance. We say, a thing is a true imitation of nature.
3. A method of translating, in which modern examples and illustrations are used for ancient, or domestic for foreign, or in which the translator not only varies the words and sense,but forsakes them as he sees occasion.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: not genuine or real; being an imitation of the genuine article; "it isn't fake anything; it's real synthetic fur"; "faux pearls"; "false teeth"; "decorated with imitation palm leaves"; "a purse of simulated alligator hide" [syn: fake, false, faux, imitation, simulated] n
1: the doctrine that representations of nature or human behavior should be accurate imitations [ant: formalism]
2: something copied or derived from an original
3: copying (or trying to copy) the actions of someone else
4: a representation of a person that is exaggerated for comic effect [syn: caricature, imitation, impersonation]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Date: 14th century 1. an act or instance of imitating 2. something produced as a copy ; counterfeit 3. a literary work designed to reproduce the style of another author 4. the repetition by one voice of a melody, phrase, or motive stated earlier in the composition by a different voice 5. the quality of an object in possessing some of the nature or attributes of a transcendent idea 6. the assumption of behavior observed in other individuals II. adjective Date: 1818 resembling something else that is usually genuine and of better quality ; not real <imitation leather>

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 the act or an instance of imitating or being imitated. 2 a copy. 3 counterfeit (often attrib.: imitation leather). 4 Mus. the repetition of a phrase etc., usu. at a different pitch, in another part or voice. Etymology: F imitation or L imitatio (as IMITATE)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Imitation Im"i*ta"tion, n. [L. imitatio: cf. F. imitation.] 1. The act of imitating. Poesy is an art of imitation, . . . that is to say, a representing, counterfeiting, or figuring forth. --Sir P. Sidney. 2. That which is made or produced as a copy; that which is made to resemble something else, whether for laudable or for fraudulent purposes; likeness; resemblance. Both these arts are not only true imitations of nature, but of the best nature. --Dryden. 3. (Mus.) One of the principal means of securing unity and consistency in polyphonic composition; the repetition of essentially the same melodic theme, phrase, or motive, on different degrees of pitch, by one or more of the other parts of voises. Cf. Canon. 4. (Biol.) The act of condition of imitating another species of animal, or a plant, or unanimate object. See Imitate, v. t., 3. Note: Imitation is often used adjectively to characterize things which have a deceptive appearance, simulating the qualities of a superior article; -- opposed to real or genuine; as, imitation lace; imitation bronze; imitation modesty, etc.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(imitations) 1. An imitation of something is a copy of it. ...the most accurate imitation of Chinese architecture in Europe. N-COUNT: oft N of n 2. Imitation means copying someone else's actions. They discussed important issues in imitation of their elders... N-UNCOUNT: oft in N of n 3. Imitation things are not genuine but are made to look as if they are. ...a complete set of Dickens bound in imitation leather. ADJ: ADJ n 4. If someone does an imitation of another person, they copy the way they speak or behave, sometimes in order to be funny. He gave his imitation of Queen Elizabeth's royal wave... = impersonation N-COUNT: usu N of n

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Copying, imitating. 2. Copy, resemblance, likeness. 3. Mimicry, mocking. 4. Parody, travesty, burlesque.

Moby Thesaurus

accordance, acting, adoption, affected, agent, agreement, alike, alikeness, alliance, alternate, alternative, analogy, aped, aping, apocryphal, approach, appropriation, approximation, artificial, assimilation, assumed, assumption, backup, bastard, bogus, borrowed plumes, brummagem, burlesque, caricature, certified copy, change, changeling, characterization, cheat, clinquant, closeness, colorable, colored, community, comparability, comparison, conduplication, conformity, consimilar, copied, copy, copying, correspondence, counterfeit, counterfeited, counterpart, deputy, derivation, deriving, distorted, double, doubling, dressed up, dumb show, dummy, duplicate, duplication, echo, ectype, embellished, embodiment, embroidered, emulation, enacting, enactment, equal, equivalent, ersatz, exchange, facsimile, factitious, fair copy, faithful copy, fake, faked, fakement, false, falsified, farce, favoring, feigned, fictitious, fictive, fill-in, following, forged, forgery, frame-up, fraud, garbled, gemination, ghost, ghostwriter, hoax, hokey, homogeneous, icon, identical, identity, illegitimate, image, imitated, impersonating, impersonation, impostor, impression, incarnation, infringement, ingemination, iteration, junk, junky, knockoff, lampoon, like, likeness, likening, locum tenens, make-believe, makeshift, man-made, masquerade, metaphor, metonymy, mimesis, mimicked, mimicking, mimicry, miming, mock, mock-up, mockery, mocking, model, nearly reproduced, nearness, next best thing, not unlike, palingenesis, pantomime, pantomiming, parallelism, paraphrase, parity, parody, paste, pasticcio, pastiche, performance, performing, personation, personification, personnel, perverted, phony, picture, pinch, pinch hitter, pinchbeck, pirating, plagiarism, plagiarized, plagiary, playing, portrait, portrayal, posing, pretended, provisional, proxy, pseudo, put-on, put-up job, quasi, queer, quotation, re-creation, re-formation, reappearance, rebirth, rebuilding, reconstitution, reconstruction, recurrence, redesign, redoing, redoubling, reduplication, reecho, reedition, reestablishment, refashioning, regeneration, regenesis, regurgitation, reincarnation, reinstitution, reissue, reiteration, relief, remaking, renascence, renewal, renovation, reoccurrence, reorganization, repetition, replacement, replica, replication, representation, representative, reprinting, reproduction, resemblance, resembling, reserve, reserves, reshaping, restoration, restructuring, resumption, resurrection, return, revision, revival, ringer, rip-off, sameness, satire, second string, secondary, self-styled, semblance, sham, shoddy, sign, similar, similarity, simile, similitude, simulacrum, simulated, simulation, smacking of, so-called, soi-disant, something like, spare, spares, spurious, squib, stand-in, stopgap, sub, substituent, substitute, substitution, succedaneum, suggestive of, superseder, supplanter, supposititious, surrogate, swindle, symbol, synecdoche, synthetic, take-off, takeoff, taking, temporary, tentative, third string, tin, tinsel, titivated, token, travesty, twinning, twisted, unauthentic, understudy, ungenuine, uniform with, unnatural, unreal, utility, utility player, version, vicar, vicarious, vice-president, vice-regent, warped, whited sepulcher, wicked imitation