Wiktionary

mimic

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Latin mīmicus, from Ancient Greek μῑμικός (mīmikós, “belonging to mimes”), from μῖμος (mîmos, “imitator, actor”); see mime.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈmɪm.ɪk/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɪmɪk

Verb

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mimic (third-person singular simple present mimics, present participle mimicking, simple past and past participle mimicked)

  1. (transitive) To imitate, especially in order to ridicule.
    • 2013 June 1, “A better waterworks”, in The Economist‎[1], volume 407, number 8838, page 5 (Technology Quarterly):
      An artificial kidney these days still means a refrigerator-sized dialysis machine. Such devices mimic the way real kidneys cleanse blood and eject impurities and surplus water as urine.
  2. (biology, transitive) To take on the appearance of another, for protection or camouflage.

Synonyms

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Translations

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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Noun

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mimic (plural mimics)

  1. A person who practices mimicry; especially:
    1. A mime.
    2. A comic who does impressions.
      Synonym: impressionist
  2. An entity that mimics another entity, such as a disease that resembles another disease in its signs and symptoms; see the great imitator.
  3. An imitation.

Synonyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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Adjective

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mimic (not comparable)

  1. Pertaining to mimicry; imitative.
    • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
      I think every man is cloied and wearied, with seeing so many apish and mimicke trickes, that juglers teach their Dogges, as the dances, where they misse not one cadence of the sounds or notes they heare […].
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book V”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
      Oft, in her absence, mimic fancy wakes / To imitate her.
    • 1800, William Wordsworth, There was a Boy:
      And there, with fingers interwoven, both hands
      Pressed closely palm to palm and to his mouth
      Uplifted, he, as through an instrument,
      Blew mimic hootings to the silent owls,
      That they might answer him.
  2. Mock, pretended.
  3. (mineralogy) Imitative; characterized by resemblance to other forms; applied to crystals which by twinning resemble simple forms of a higher grade of symmetry.
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Further reading

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Romanian

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Etymology

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Borrowed from French mimique.

Adjective

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mimic m or n (feminine singular mimică, masculine plural mimici, feminine and neuter plural mimice)

  1. mimic

Declension

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singular plural
masculine neuter feminine masculine neuter feminine
nominative-
accusative 		indefinite mimic mimică mimici mimice
definite mimicul mimica mimicii mimicele
genitive-
dative 		indefinite mimic mimice mimici mimice
definite mimicului mimicei mimicilor mimicelor
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