To imitate means to copy how someone else does something. When you imitate your older sister's way of throwing a softball, you're watching carefully and trying to do it the same way she does. Young children often imitate their parents' gestures, expressions, and even the way they talk.

Imitation is one of the most powerful ways humans learn. Before you could read instructions for tying your shoes, you probably learned by imitating someone who showed you. Musicians imitate masters to develop their technique. Artists study and imitate great paintings to understand how they were made. Scientists repeat, or imitate, each other's experiments to verify results.

The word can carry different feelings depending on context. Sometimes imitating shows respect and a desire to learn. Other times, if you imitate someone's voice or mannerisms to make fun of them, that's mockery. And if you try to pass off an imitation as the real thing (like fake designer sunglasses), that's dishonest.

An imitator is someone who copies others, and an imitation is the thing that results from copying, like imitation leather. Nature also produces mimics: some harmless butterflies imitate poisonous ones to fool predators.