English Dictionary

IMITATIVE

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IPA (US): 

 Dictionary entry overview: What does imitative mean? 

IMITATIVE (adjective)
  The adjective IMITATIVE has 3 senses:

1. marked by or given to imitationplay

2. (of words) formed in imitation of a natural soundplay

3. not genuine; imitating something superiorplay

  Familiarity information: IMITATIVE used as an adjective is uncommon.


 Dictionary entry details 


IMITATIVE (adjective)


Sense 1

Meaning:

Marked by or given to imitation

Context example:

man is an imitative being

Similar:

apelike; apish (being or given to servile imitation)

mimetic (exhibiting mimicry)

mimic (constituting an imitation)

parrotlike (mechanically imitated or repeated without thought or understanding)

simulated (reproduced or made to resemble; imitative in character)

Antonym:

nonimitative (not marked by or given to imitation)

Derivation:

imitate (reproduce someone's behavior or looks)


Sense 2

Meaning:

(of words) formed in imitation of a natural sound

Synonyms:

echoic; imitative; onomatopoeic; onomatopoeical; onomatopoetic

Context example:

it was independently developed in more than one place as an onomatopoetic term


Sense 3

Meaning:

Not genuine; imitating something superior

Synonyms:

counterfeit; imitative

Context example:

a counterfeit prince

Similar:

bad; forged (reproduced fraudulently)

synthetic (not genuine or natural)

pseudo ((often used in combination) not genuine but having the appearance of)

pinchbeck (serving as an imitation or substitute)

ostensible; ostensive (represented or appearing as such; pretended)

mock (constituting a copy or imitation of something)

inauthentic; spurious; unauthentic (false or fake; not what it appears to be)

bastard; bogus; fake; phoney; phony (fraudulent; having a misleading appearance)

base (debased; not genuine)

assumed; false; fictitious; fictive; pretended; put on; sham (adopted in order to deceive)

Also:

artificial; unreal (contrived by art rather than nature)

unreal (lacking in reality or substance or genuineness; not corresponding to acknowledged facts or criteria)

insincere (lacking sincerity)

false (not in accordance with the fact or reality or actuality)

Derivation:

imitate (make a reproduction or copy of)


 Context examples 


Personally, he was an intellectual moralist, and more offending to him than platitudinous pomposity was the morality of those about him, which was a curious hotchpotch of the economic, the metaphysical, the sentimental, and the imitative.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)



 Learn English with... Proverbs 
"Fine feathers make fine birds." (English proverb)

"The way of the troublemaker is thorny." (Native American proverb, Umpqua)

"He who sees the calamity of other people finds his own calamity light." (Arabic proverb)

"Nothing ventured, nothing gained." (Corsican proverb)



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