imposture

American  

[im-pos-cher] / ɪmˈpɒs tʃər /

noun

1. the action or practice of imposing fraudulently upon others.

2. deception using an assumed character, identity, or name, as by an impostor.

3. an instance or piece of fraudulent imposition.

   Synonyms:

   cheat, humbug, deception, swindle, hoax, fraud

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imposture British  

/ ɪmˈpɒstrəs, ɪmˈpɒstərəs, ɪmˈpɒstʃə /

noun

1. the act or an instance of deceiving others, esp by assuming a false identity

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Other Word Forms

• impostrous adjective
• imposturous adjective

Etymology

Origin of imposture

1530–40; < Late Latin impostūra, equivalent to Latin impost ( us ) past participle of impōnere ( impostor, impone ) + -ūra -ure

Example Sentences

The unnamed narrator in “Portrait of an Unknown Lady,” María Gainza’s crepuscular but dreamy novel, looks back over a life led in the shadow of imposture.

From New York Times • Mar. 22, 2022

If you’re really attached to Picabia’s great Dada years, you may try to justify these garish paintings as yet another imposture – as a decades-long ironic commentary on the fiction of originality.

From The Guardian • Nov. 23, 2016

Although steering clear of most details of his personal life, he does treat us to tasty morsels of inside dope, as well as his father’s lurid adventures in bankruptcy and imposture.

From Washington Post • Nov. 16, 2016

A more recent imposture, which is still having harmful effects, is the vaccine scare that began in 1998.

From The New Yorker • Jan. 25, 2016

But such imposture can never maintain its ground long.

From "Words Like Loaded Pistols" by Sam Leith