Adjacent Words

Imposture definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

IMPOS'TURE, n. [L. impostura. See Impose.]
Deception practiced under a false or assumed character; fraud or imposition practiced by a false pretender.
--Form new legends,
And fill the world with follies and impostures.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: pretending to be another person [syn: imposture, impersonation]

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Late Latin impostura, from Latin impositus, impostus, past participle of imponere Date: 1537 1. the act or practice of deceiving by means of an assumed character or name 2. an instance of imposture Synonyms: imposture, fraud, sham, fake, humbug, counterfeit mean a thing made to seem other than it is. imposture applies to any situation in which a spurious object or performance is passed off as genuine <their claim of environmental concern is an imposture>. fraud usually implies a deliberate perversion of the truth <the diary was exposed as a fraud>. sham applies to fraudulent imitation of a real thing or action <condemned the election as a sham>. fake implies an imitation of or substitution for the genuine but does not necessarily imply dishonesty <these jewels are fakes; the real ones are in the vault>. humbug suggests elaborate pretense usually so flagrant as to be transparent <creating publicity by foisting humbugs on a gullible public>. counterfeit applies especially to the close imitation of something valuable <20-dollar bills that were counterfeits>.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. the act or an instance of fraudulent deception. Etymology: F f. LL impostura (as IMPOST(1))

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Imposture Im*pos"ture, n. [L. impostura: cf. F. imposture. See Impone.] The act or conduct of an impostor; deception practiced under a false or assumed character; fraud or imposition; cheating. From new legends And fill the world with follies and impostures. --Johnson. Syn: Cheat; fraud; trick; imposition; delusion.

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. Cheat, trick, deception, imposition, hoax, fraud, delusion, artifice, ruse, dodge, wile, deceit, stratagem, chouse, crafty device.

Moby Thesaurus

acting, affectation, appearance, artifice, attitudinizing, ballot-box stuffing, bluff, bluffing, bunco, cardsharping, charlatanism, charlatanry, cheat, cheating, color, coloring, copy, copying, counterfeit, counterfeiting, cozenage, deceit, deception, delusion, diddle, diddling, disguise, dishonesty, dissemblance, dissembling, dissimulation, dodge, emulation, fabrication, facade, face, fake, fakery, faking, false air, false front, false show, falsity, feigning, feint, fishy transaction, flam, flimflam, following, forgery, four-flushing, fraud, fraudulence, fraudulency, front, gambit, gerrymandering, gilt, gloss, graft, grift, gyp, gyp joint, hit-off, hoax, humbug, humbuggery, illicit business, imitation, impersonation, imposition, impression, make-believe, maneuver, masquerade, meretriciousness, mimesis, mirroring, onomatopoeia, ostentation, outward show, parody, phony, plagiarism, plagiary, playacting, ploy, pose, posing, posture, pretense, pretension, pretext, put-on, quackery, quackishness, quackism, racket, repetition, representation, ruse, scam, seeming, semblance, sham, show, simulacrum, simulation, sleight, speciousness, spoof, swindle, takeoff, varnish, wile, window dressing