Impersonate vs Counterfeit - What's the difference?
impersonate | counterfeit | Related terms |
To pretend to be (a different person), to assume the identity of.
(obsolete) To manifest in corporeal form; to personify.
False, especially of money; intended to deceive or carry appearance of being genuine.
Inauthentic.
Assuming the appearance of something; deceitful; hypocritical.
* Shakespeare
A non-genuine article; a fake.
*c.1597 William Shakespeare, Henry IV part I, Act II, scene 4:
* Macaulay
One who counterfeits; a counterfeiter.
(obsolete) That which resembles another thing; a likeness; a portrait; a counterpart.
* William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens
* 1590 Edmund Spenser, Faerie Queene Book III, canto VIII:
(obsolete) An impostor; a cheat.
* c.1597 William Shakespeare, Henry IV part I, Act V, scene 4
To falsely produce what appears to be official or valid; to produce a forged copy of.
(obsolete) To produce a faithful copy of.
*
(obsolete) To feign; to mimic.
* Oliver Goldsmith, The Village Schoolmaster
Of a turn or river card, to invalidate a player's hand by making a better hand on the board.
In transitive terms the difference between impersonate and counterfeit
is that impersonate is to pretend to be (a different person), to assume the identity of while counterfeit is to falsely produce what appears to be official or valid; to produce a forged copy of.As an adjective counterfeit is
false, especially of money; intended to deceive or carry appearance of being genuine.As a noun counterfeit is
a non-genuine article; a fake.impersonate
English
Verb
(en-verb)- The conman managed to impersonate several executives.
Synonyms
* (assume identity of) personate * (manifest in corporeal form) embodyDerived terms
* impersonation * impersonatorcounterfeit
English
Adjective
(-)- This counterfeit watch looks like the real thing, but it broke a week after I bought it.
- counterfeit sympathy
- an arrant counterfeit rascal
Synonyms
* See alsoNoun
(en noun)- Never call a true piece of gold a counterfeit .
- Some of these counterfeits are fabricated with such exquisite taste and skill, that it is the achievement of criticism to distinguish them from originals.
- Thou drawest a counterfeit / Best in all Athens.
- Even Nature's self envied the same, / And grudged to see the counterfeit should shame / The thing itself.
- I fear thou art another counterfeit ; / And yet, in faith, thou bear'st thee like a king.
Verb
(en verb)- to counterfeit the signature of another, coins, notes, etc.
- to counterfeit the voice of another person
- Full well they laughed with counterfeited glee / At all his jokes, for many a joke had he.