Mimicking

How to spell mimicking

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce mimicking

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does mimicking mean?

1. verbCopying someone's speech, behaviour, or appearance, often to entertain or to mock.

Mimicking in a sentence

• The comedian built his act around mimicking famous politicians.

• The parrot kept mimicking the ringtone of his phone.

Where does mimicking come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This is the present participle of the verb 'mimic', which traces back through Latin to Greek. The Greek noun 'mimos' meant a performer or imitator who copied the speech and gestures of others, and it gave rise to the adjective 'mimikos', meaning 'imitative'. Latin borrowed this as 'mimicus', and English picked the word up in the late 1500s, using 'mimic' both as a noun for a skilled imitator and as a verb for the act of copying. The very same root sits inside 'mime' and 'pantomime', a clue to its theatrical past. The spelling trap appears only when a suffix is added: because the base ends in a -c that must keep its hard /k/ sound, English inserts a -k- before -ing, giving 'mimicking' rather than the wrong-looking 'mimicing'; the same rule produces 'panicking' and 'trafficking'.

How the word is built

• mimic (from Greek mimos: imitator)
• -k- (inserted to keep the hard /k/ sound)
• -ing (present participle)