Imitating

How to spell imitating

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce imitating

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does imitating mean?

1. verbCopying the behaviour, appearance, or sound of someone or something.

Imitating in a sentence

• The comedian made a living by imitating famous politicians.

• Young children learn to speak by imitating the adults around them.

Where does imitating come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb imitari, which meant 'to copy', 'to portray', or 'to make a likeness of', and which is related to imago, the Latin word for 'image' or 'likeness'. The same imago root sits behind familiar English words such as 'image' and 'imagine', so the family connection is about producing a likeness of something. English took 'imitate' in the sixteenth century, modelling it on the Latin past participle imitatus, and then formed the present participle 'imitating' with the everyday -ing ending. The single m and the unstressed middle vowel are the usual spelling traps: writers sometimes double the m by analogy with words like 'immediate', but imitari only ever carried one m. Keeping the link to 'image' in mind helps fix the single m and the i in the second syllable.

How the word is built

• imit- (from Latin imitari: to copy)
• -ate (verb-forming)
• -ing (present participle)