How to Use imitate in a Sentence

imitate

verb
  • She can imitate the calls of many different birds.
  • He's very good at imitating his father's voice.
  • Her style has been imitated by many other writers.
  • Any twin mom knows that their kids tend to imitate each other.
    — Charlotte Triggs, PEOPLE.com, 3 Sep. 2019
  • Whether or not life imitates art remains to be seen.
    — Andrew Paul, Popular Science, 19 Mar. 2026
  • Caribbeans gotta have that swing, and that’s hard for outsiders to imitate.
    — Los Angeles Times, 11 June 2021
  • So maybe that was art imitating life.
    — Rachel Handler, Vulture, 18 May 2026
  • One of them was imitating his voice.
    — Michael Rios, CNN Money, 26 Mar. 2026
  • An icon worth imitating, to be sure.
    — Literary Hub, 23 Jan. 2026
  • School is supposed to show them what to imitate about adults and about each other.
    — Titus Techera, National Review, 26 June 2019
  • The kind that you’re born with and other people try to imitate.
    — Randall Roberts, Los Angeles Times, 8 June 2021
  • There’s something to be said about art imitating life in this plot line.
    — Martha Ross, Mercury News, 12 Aug. 2025
  • This is a case of the macro imitating the micro.
    — Paul A. Thompson, Pitchfork, 8 Dec. 2025
  • Lots of animals can imitate the sound of purring, among them bears and guinea pigs.
    — Katherine J. Wu, The Atlantic, 7 Sep. 2022
  • But the same thing happens — life imitates art and vice versa.
    — Cat Cardenas, Los Angeles Times, 23 Sep. 2023
  • Small fish, and the streamers that imitate them, are at risk of attack by edgy adults.
    — Field & Stream, 13 Oct. 2020
  • The star imitated the lone star of Texas.
    — Kurt Snibbe, Oc Register, 12 June 2026
  • Davy was on the app, too, spurring on those brave enough to imitate her ambitious style.
    — Leah Dolan, CNN, 17 Nov. 2021
  • The witness pinched his fingers and dropped them down to imitate his wife putting cash in her purse.
    — Rachel Nolan, The New Yorker, 30 Dec. 2019
  • Each tour is framed as a way to meet the artisans, rather than to learn how to imitate their craft.
    — Washington Post, 6 Apr. 2022
  • Starr said from the stage, imitating a screaming girl’s voice.
    — Mark Leibovich, The Atlantic, 31 Mar. 2025
  • The team installed a coral insert that imitates the same coral found in the local sea.
    — Amy Aumick, OrlandoSentinel.com, 7 May 2018
  • The classic style imitates a work boot, but don’t be fooled by the old-school look of the nubuck leather upper.
    — Adrienne Donica, Popular Mechanics, 5 Feb. 2020
  • The novel imitates life, where the short story is bony, and cannot wander.
    — S. Kirk Walsh, San Francisco Chronicle, 24 May 2018
  • Many may want to imitate us, but never want to celebrate us.
    — Larry Stansbury, Essence, 12 Sep. 2025
  • The choir imitates the era’s warning sirens and coughs to convey the effects of the dust.
    — Manuel Mendoza, Dallas News, 21 Feb. 2020
  • At the end of his tune, Mayer lets out a loud noise, meant to imitate a donkey call.
    — Joelle Goldstein, Peoplemag, 2 Mar. 2023
  • So in that moment, life is imitating art a little bit.
    — Dave Quinn, PEOPLE, 28 May 2026
  • Maybe that was just art-making imitating life.
    — Thomas Page, CNN Money, 24 Oct. 2025
  • These fake sites are made to imitate genuine Google support pages.
    — Zak Doffman, Forbes.com, 26 Jan. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'imitate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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