impostor
noun
Simple meaning
Someone who try to deceive by using an assumed name or identity.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ihmpawsterSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɪmˈpɔstɚ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
Someone who attempts to deceive by using an assumed name or identity.
computer graphics
A sprite or animation integrated into a three-dimensional scene to look like part of the 3D world.
linguistics
A term referenced in an unusual grammatical person.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Someone who attempts to deceive by using an assumed name or identity.
Used this way, impostor is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It criticises, but without shouting.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Critical but measured
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.