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# imitate

«imitate» in Mova's school dictionary: **To copy the way someone speaks, moves or behaves** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 2 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

verb (imitate, imitates, imitated, imitating)

### meaning for a pupil

1) To copy the way someone speaks, moves or behaves. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/imitate/#m1)

2) To make something look or sound like something else. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/imitate/#m2)

3) To follow someone as an example: «imitate your heroes». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/imitate/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In school, young children learn by imitating adults; in music and drama pupils imitate sounds. In nature some animals imitate others to stay safe (mimicry). In church life Christians try to imitate Jesus. Phrases: imitate a voice, imitate a sound, try to imitate.

### examples

- Parrots can imitate human voices. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/imitate/#x1)
- My brother imitates the teacher's voice to make us laugh. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/imitate/#x2)
- Young children imitate what they see adults do. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/imitate/#x3)
- Some harmless flies imitate wasps to scare off birds. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/imitate/#x4)
- The clarinet imitates the cuckoo in this piece of music. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/imitate/#x5)
- Christians try to imitate Jesus in kindness. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/imitate/#x6)
- "How should I?" I replied, resolved to imitate the princess in her fidelity. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/imitate/#x7)

### note

Noun: imitation, imitator. Similar: copy, mimic. Imitating to mock someone can be unkind.

### In the corpora

- [An app that imitates a famous person who has died is a bot copying a style; the person is not there.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/ai/15-bots-are-not-doctors-helplines-are-people/13/)
- [The King decides that the Knave must have imitated someone's handwriting, and that not signing it proves he is up to mischief.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/23-alice-alices-evidence-1/12/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «imitate» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/imitate/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.