Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Impostor |
ImpostorNoun1. A person who makes deceitful pretenses. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "impostor" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1258. (references) |
Etymology: Impostor \Im*pos"tor\, noun. [Latin expression impostor deceiver, from imponere to impose upon, deceive. See Impone.]. (Websters 1913) |
| Domain | Definitions |
Satire | IMPOSTOR n. A rival aspirant to public honors. Source: Devil's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Most impostors try to gain financial or social advantages. Pretenders for various thrones used to be common. Numerous men claimed they were Dauphin, heir to the French throne who disappeared during the French Revolution. There were at least two false Dimitris who were serious pretenders for the throne of Russia.
Very daring impostors may pretend to be someone else who really exists although fast news media has made this rather difficult in these days. Usually they just misrepresent their financial, educational or social status, family background and in some cases, their gender.
Impostors are usually aware of not being who they say they are, they are not the proverbial lunatics who think they are Napoleon. However there are borderline cases who may have end up believing their own tall tales.
People may make false claims about their past or background - that they can sing, for example - without being full-blown impostors; non-existent military service seems common. Only if a significant part of their past is fabricated - like that of George Dupre who claimed to have been an SOE agent in World War Two - they approach the admittedly hazy border.
Sometimes women have masqueraded as men to obtain privileges only men can have or work in male-dominated professions (see James Barry). Some of them fought as men at least in Napoleonic Wars and American Civil War.
Many temporary impostors are criminals who maintain the façade for a time of a caper to defraud their victims (like Wilhelm Voigt). Others, like US prankster Joey Skaggs, do it as a prank or in order to make a point of some kind. The latter usually reveal the truth sooner or later.
Sometimes an organization (or even individual) who has been fooled keeps quiet to avoid the embarrassment and therefore allows the impostor try the same thing elsewhere.
Of course, the most successful impostors are those whose duplicity is never revealed so that we know nothing about them.
Sample impostors:
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Impostor."
Synonyms: ImpostorSynonyms: fake (n), faker (n), fraud (n), imposter (n), pretender (n), pseud (n), pseudo (n), role player (n), sham (n), shammer (n). (additional references) |
Crosswords: Impostor |
| English words defined with "impostor": Deluder ♦ expose ♦ Impostorship ♦ Miracle monger, Mumper ♦ unmasking. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "impostor": Beauty of Buttermere ♦ Editor. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "impostor": Epithite ♦ Phenacite. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Impostor" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. Portuguese (charlatan, cheat, counterfeit, hocus, humbug, imposter, impostor, juggler, phoney, phony, quack, quacksalver, sham, shammer, shyster, swindler, trickster), Romanian (humbug, impostor, quack), Spanish (humbug, impostor, pretender, sham, shammer). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Movie/TV Titles | The Great Impostor (1961) El Impostor (1960) The Impostor (1955) Beloved Impostor (1936) El Impostor (1936) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Theater & Movies | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | EDITOR, n. A person who combines the judicial functions of Minos, Rhadamanthus and Aeacus, but is placable with an obolus; a severely virtuous censor, but so charitable withal that he tolerates the virtues of others and the vices of himself; who flings about him the splintering lightning and sturdy thunders of admonition till he resembles a bunch of firecrackers petulantly uttering his mind at the tail of a dog; then straightway murmurs a mild, melodious lay, soft as the cooing of a donkey intoning its prayer to the evening star. Master of mysteries and lord of law, high-pinnacled upon the throne of thought, his face suffused with the dim splendors of the Transfiguration, his legs intertwisted and his tongue a-cheek, the editor spills his will along the paper and cuts it off in lengths to suit. And at intervals from behind the veil of the temple is heard the voice of the foreman demanding three inches of wit and six lines of religious meditation, or bidding him turn off the wisdom and whack up some pathos. O, the Lord of Law on the Throne of Thought, A gilded impostor is he. Of shreds and patches his robes are wrought, His crown is brass, Himself an ass, And his power is fiddle-dee-dee. Prankily, crankily prating of naught, Silly old quilly old Monarch of Thought. Public opinion's camp-follower he, Thundering, blundering, plundering free. Affected, Ungracious, Suspected, Mendacious, Respected contemporaree! J.H. Bumbleshook |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Impostor" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 93.33% of the time. "Impostor" is used about 15 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 93.33% | 14 | 93,893 |
| Noun (proper) | 6.67% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 15 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
the impostor | 36 |
impostor jewelry | 9 |
impostor movie | 6 |
the great impostor | 5 |
el impostor | 2 |
among impostor | 2 |
impostor syndrome | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "impostor"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | i vetëquajtur (professed, self-styled), mashtrues (ambidextrous, artful, bilker, bluffer, bouncer, catchy, cheat, Crimp, deceitful, deceiver, deceptive, delusive, delusory, diddler, dishonest, dodger, double, double dealing, double-dealer, finagler, fraud, fraudulent, guileful, gyp, humbug, hustler, Jack-in-the-box, mendacious, misleading, mountebank, pettifogger, pettifogging, phoney, quack, racketeer, rascal, rascally, rogue, sandman, shuffler, skin, snide, swindler, trickster, twister, two-tongued). (various references) | |
Arabic | طبيب جاهل, طبيب دجال (quack), المحتال (artist, bluffer, cheat, crook, dodger, juggler, kite, knave, queue jumper, rook, shark, sharper, skin, swindler), المشعوز, المدعى (plaintiff, windbag), النصاب (shark, sharper, skin, swindler), الأفاك (scandalmonger), الدجال (charlatan, magus, mountebank, operator, quack, sham, witchdoctor). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | самозванец (intruder, personator), измамник (ambidextrous, bilk, bilker, cheat, counterfeit, deceiver, double-dealer, fake, fiddler, fraud, gyp, intake, juggler, ringer, rook, sharp, sharpy, slicker, swindler). (various references) | |
Czech | podvodník (cheat, con man, confidence trickster, conman, crook, deceiver, dodger, fake, fiddler, fraud, juggler, phoney, phony, racketeer, rascal, runner, shark, sharper, swindler, trickster), hochštapler (crook). (various references) | |
Farsi | وانمودکننده , غاصب (Usurper, Violator), طرار. (various references) | |
Finnish | petkuttaja (cheat, swindler). (various references) | |
French | imposteur. (various references) | |
German | hochstapler (con man, confidence trickster, fraud, impostors), betrüger (beguiler, beguilers, cheat, cheater, con man, deceiver, defrauder, diddler, fiddler, impersonator, impostors, liar, peculator, peculators, rook, swindler, trickster). (various references) | |
Greek | αγύρτησ (charlatan, fortune teller, hoodwinker, humbug, mountebank, mumper, quack, rogue, swindler). (various references) | |
Hebrew | מתחז", רמאי (cheat, cheater, cheating, deceiver, duper, fraudulent, humbug, mountebank, ringer, rogue, scoundrel, sharper, sneaky, swindler, trickster), וכל (charlatan, crafty, crook, knave, miscreant, racketeer, rogue, scoundrel, shark, sharper, swindrel, trickster). (various references) | |
Hungarian | szélhámos (bilker, cheat, chiseler, con man, confidence man, fake, fiddler, fraud, gouge, gyp, humbug, hustler, mountebank, phoney, phony, rogue, rooky, shark, sharper, swindler, trickster), csaló (abuser, bilk, blackleg, bobber, cheat, colubrine, crook, deceitful, double-dealer, fake, faker, fiddler, fraud, fraudulent, gouge, guileful, gyp, humbug, hustler, jockey, juggler, leg, masquerader, picaroon, piker, rogue, roguish, rook, rooky, shark, sharper, skinner, snide, swindler, trickster). (various references) | |
Italian | impostore (faker, humbug, juggler, phoney, sham). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 偽り者 (liar). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | いつわりもの (liar), えせもの (counterfeit, fraud, pretender, sham). (various references) | |
Manx | molteyr (charlatan, cheat, con man, confidence trickster, counterfeit, deceiver, deluder, duper, fraud). (various references) | |
Norwegian | bedrager. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | impostoray.(various references) | |
Portuguese | impostor (charlatan, cheat, counterfeit, hocus, humbug, imposter, juggler, phoney, phony, quack, quacksalver, sham, shammer, shyster, swindler, trickster), imitador (ape, apish, copier, imitative, imitator, impersonator, mimic), taxa (average, charge, due, duty, fare, fee, gearshift, imposition, percentage, proportional, rate, ratio, tax), personificador (impersonator), embusteiro (cheat, double-tongued, hawk, mendacious, pettifogger, sklent, trickster), ator (actor, impersonator, mummer, performer, player). (various references) | |
Romanian | impostor (humbug, quack), escroc (bilk, biter, blackguard, blackleg, carpet bagger, charlatan, cheat, crook, desperado, double-dealer, duffer, faker, fraud, gambler, gamester, gouge, gyp, jockey, juggler, knave, mountebank, rogue, rook, scab, shark, sharp, sharper, snap, swindler), şarlatan (charlatan, coon, desperado, history, juggler, mountebank, quack). (various references) | |
Russian | обманщик (bluffer, charlatan, cheat, cheater, counterfeiter, crook, deceiver, deceptive person, double-dealer, faker, fiddler, four-flusher, fraudster, phoney, tricker, trickster, welsher). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | varalica (charlatan, chouse, crook, double-dealer, fake, fraud, gyp, jack-in-the-box, mountebank, sharper, swindler, trickster, wheeler dealer). (various references) | |
Spanish | impostor (humbug, pretender, sham, shammer). (various references) | |
Swedish | skojare (cheat, crook, dodger, gyp, humbug, imposter, joker, juggler, kidder, knave, muddler, operator, petty trader, rascal, rogue, scallywag, scamp, sham, shark, son of a gun, swindler, trickster), bedragare (bilker, cheat, crook, deceiver, defrauder, double-dealer, fraud, imposter, juggler, sharper, swindler). (various references) | |
Turkish | sahtekâr (counterfeiter, crook, crooked, dishonest, double-tongued, fabricator, fake, faker, fakir, forger, fraud, fraudulent, make believe, phoney, phony, sham, shammer), madrabaz (dodger, huckster, middleman), dolandırıcı (adventurer, bilker, carpet bagger, cheat, cheater, chiseler, chiseller, confidence man, confidence trickster, crook, crooked, deceitful, double-dealer, faker, fakir, fiddler, fraud, fraudulent, grifter, gyp, hustler, knave, lurcher, rogue, sham, shark, sharp, spieler, swindler, Twicer), düzenbaz kimse, düzenbaz (bilker, crafty, cross, deceitful, deceiver, designing, falsifier, gadgety, intriguer, intriguing, left handed, pettifogging, racketeer, rogue, roguish, serpentine, shammer, shyster, tartar, trickster, tricky). (various references) | |
Ukranian | самозванець (cheat, counterfeit, impersonator), обманщик (bluff, bluffer, cheat, counterfeit, counterfeiter, deceiver, dissembler, double-dealer, foist, fraud, humbug, mountebank, phoney, pretender, trickster, twister). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | kẻ lừa đảo kẻ mạo danh (imposter). (various references) | |
Welsh | ffugiwr (forger). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | praestigiator. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "impostor": impostors. (additional references) | |
| |
"Impostor" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: imposte. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "impostor" (pronounced i'mpô"ster) |
| 7 | i' m p ô" s t er | imposter. |
| 4 | -ô" s t er | coster. |
| 3 | -s t er | adjuster, administer, alabaster, ancestor, aster, banister, bannister, barrister, blaster, blister, blockbuster, bluster, bolster, booster, broadcaster, burgomaster, Buster, canister, cannister, caster, Castor, cloister, cluster, coaster, concertmaster, Dempster, Dexter, digester, disaster, dumpster, duster, Easter, ester, faster, Feaster, fester, filibuster, fluster, forecaster, Forester, Foster, gangbuster, gangster, Gaster, grandmaster, hamster, harvester, headmaster, heister, holster, huckster, investor, jester, juster, keister, kiester, lackluster, laster, Leister, Lister, lobster, Luster, lustre, master, minister, Minster, Mister, mobster, molester, monster, muenster, Munster, muster, nester, Nestor, newscaster, oldster, oleaster, ouster, oyster, paster, pastor, pester, pilaster, plaster, pollster, polyester, poster, postmaster, prankster, protester, quartermaster, raster, register, requester, rester, ringmaster, roadster, roaster, roister, rooster, roster, royster, schoolmaster, scoutmaster, seamster, semester, sequester, shyster, sinister, sister, spinster, sportscaster, stepsister, taskmaster, taster, teamster, tester, thruster, tipster, toaster, toastmaster, transistor, trickster, trimester, twister, Ulster, upholster, waster, Webster, Wester, youngster, zoster. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "i-m-o-o-p-r-s-t" | |
-1 letter: imports, tropism. | |
-2 letters: import, impost, motors, pooris, porism, primos, promos, prosit, ripost, tripos, tromps, troops. | |
-3 letters: moist, moors, moots, morts, motor, omits, poori, ports, posit, primo, prims, prism, promo, proms, proso, prost, riots, romps, rooms, roost, roots, rotis, rotos, sopor, spirt, spoor, sport, sprit, stirp, stomp, stoop, storm, strip, strop, tiros, topis, topoi, topos, toros, torsi, torso, trims, trios, trips, trois, tromp, troop. | |
-4 letters: imps, mirs, miso, mist, moor, moos, moot, mops, mors, mort, most, mots, omit, oops, oots, opts, orts, piso, pits, pois, poms, poor, port, post, pots, prim, prom, pros, rims, riot, rips, romp, roms, room, root, roti, roto, rots, simp, smit, soot, sori, sort, spit, spot, stir, stop, tips, tiro, toms, toom, topi, tops, tori, toro, tors, trim, trio, trip, trop. | |
-5 letters: imp, ism, its, mir, mis, moo, mop, mor, mos, mot, oms, oot, ops, opt, ors, ort, pis, pit, poi, pom, pot, pro, psi, rim, rip, rom, rot, sim, sip, sir, sit, som, sop, sot, sri, tip, tis, tom, too, top, tor. | |
| Words containing the letters "i-m-o-o-p-r-s-t" | |
+1 letter: impostors, pogromist, prostomia. | |
+2 letters: compositor, geotropism, metropolis, outpromise, pogromists, promotions, prostomial, prostomium. | |
+3 letters: compatriots, competitors, compositors, corporatism, geotropisms, mesotrophic, monitorship, opportunism, optometries, optometrist, outpromised, outpromises, pittosporum, positronium, postforming, tropomyosin. | |
+4 letters: anisotropism, automorphism, chemotropism, corporatisms, heliotropism, hemoproteins, hydrotropism, impersonator, importations, improvisator, laparotomies, metropolises, microscopist, monitorships, morphologist, mucoproteins, operationism, opportunisms, optometrists, outpromising, overoptimism, overoptimist, paronomastic, photometries, phototropism, pittosporums, positroniums, postorgasmic, postromantic, premonitions, promontories, prothrombins, protoplasmic, reimposition, somatotropin, spermatozoid, tomographies, tropomyosins. | |
+5 letters: anisometropia, anisometropic, anisotropisms, automorphisms, chemisorption, chemotropisms, compurgations, contemporizes, corporativism, enantiomorphs, heliotropisms, hydrotropisms, impersonation, impersonators, improvisation, improvisatore, improvisatori, improvisators, improvisatory, malabsorption, mastigophoran, metamorphosis, metropolitans, microporosity, microscopists, moderatorship, morphologists, morphometries, operationisms, overoptimisms, overoptimists, photochromism, phototropisms, pococurantism, poikilotherms, postembryonic, postmodernism, postmodernist, precombustion, preformations, primatologies, primatologist, primogenitors, proclamations, promotiveness, promulgations, protectionism, pyromorphites, recomposition, reimpositions, somatotrophin, somatotropins, spermatogonia, spermatozoids, thermophilous, thermotropism, thigmotropism. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)49 6D 70 6F 73 74 6F 72 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references).. -- .--. --- ... - --- .-. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01001001 01101101 01110000 01101111 01110011 01110100 01101111 01110010 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)I m p o s t o r |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0049 006D 0070 006F 0073 0074 006F 0072 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)4379828185868184 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Quotations: Non-fiction 7. Usage Frequency 8. Expressions: Internet | 9. Translations: Modern 10. Translations: Ancient 11. Derivations 12. Rhymes | 13. Anagrams 14. Orthography 15. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
