What's the difference between impostor and pretender?

Impostor


Definition:

  • (n.) One who imposes upon others; a person who assumes a character or title not his own, for the purpose of deception; a pretender.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) If you buy your tarragon from a garden centre, beware of that rather bitter, dragonish impostor, A. dracunculoides, or Russian tarragon, which is a much less refined and tasty thing.
  • (2) But the damage was done, leading the GOP establishment to suggest that Trump had finally been unmasked as a conservative impostor.
  • (3) "He was not simply an impostor seeking to profit solely off the name and reputation of Rick Ross.
  • (4) Few in the Square Mile tire of hearing about pre-results gaffes that have included a guard routinely taking a break after parking his security van outside a customer’s store before venturing inside to collect the takings, a pattern that allowed an impostor to don a G4S uniform and make off with £14,000 from the store’s tills; and (best of all) a prisoner tricking his G4S guards into tagging his prosthetic leg, thereby allowing him to skip his curfew by detaching the limb.
  • (5) Without impostors, nationalists and bandits, without tanks and APCs, and without secret visits of the director of the CIA … UPDATE: Medvedev again warned of civil war in Ukraine after a meeting Tuesday with his counterparts from Belarus and Kazakhstan, Reuters reports: Medvedev said on Tuesday he hoped that the authorities in the Ukrainian capital have "enough brains" to prevent a further escalation of the conflict in the east of the country.
  • (6) Manchester United ended the transfer window in farce and disappointment with the deal to sign Ander Herrera having failed after the club refused to pay his €36m buyout clause, while claiming that impostors in Spain attempted to muscle in on the deal.
  • (7) Syphilis remains the great impostor and still must be considered in the differential diagnosis of unexplained liver enzyme abnormalities, even in a patient with no symptoms or signs of early syphilis.
  • (8) Another impostor fooled Afghan, British and US intelligence in 2010, pocketing thousands of dollars in cash incentives for coming to peace talks before he was revealed not to be the high-ranking Taliban official he claimed.
  • (9) Shaffer's play is discussed as an illustration of this distinction and its relation to pseudoemotionality, the impostor syndrome, and the "as if" personality.
  • (10) The previous government, under Goodluck Jonathan, conducted high-level negotiations before realising it was talking to impostors.
  • (11) Don't be duped by the ostensibly tragic finale: that dead old man was just an impostor.
  • (12) Ukip denies all knowledge, spluttering that the leafleters are fifth columnists and impostors.
  • (13) At the Paris farm show, two feminists seeking to award her a prize “for being an impostor for the so-called defence of women” were removed by Le Pen’s security team.
  • (14) Capgras syndrome is characterized by a delusion of impostors who are thought to be physically similar but psychologically distinct from the misidentified person.
  • (15) Earlier in the year there were rumours that Prince William had registered, but it was later revealed to be a mere impostor.
  • (16) However, Rosen discovered that the cigar-smoking, paint-daubing impostor was born in 1960 or 1961 and had never been in a Tarzan film.
  • (17) In Last Man Standing , he writes that he suffered from "impostor syndrome", expecting that everything he'd achieved would inevitably be taken away from him.
  • (18) Two days on, there is still confusion at Old Trafford about the involvement of the three lawyers described on deadline night as "impostors" and United feel so strongly about it they have been willing to put their position on the record.
  • (19) It was found that over an extensive range of values for the equilibrium constant of a non-ideal isodesmic generating model, only a non-ideal monomer-dimer-tetramer-octamer was a successful impostor model.
  • (20) The other advantage of having a Taliban office is that it should reduce the risk of impostors presenting themselves as Taliban negotiators.

Pretender


Definition:

  • (n.) One who lays claim, or asserts a title (to something); a claimant.
  • (n.) The pretender (Eng. Hist.), the son or the grandson of James II., the heir of the royal family of Stuart, who laid claim to the throne of Great Britain, from which the house was excluded by law.
  • (n.) One who pretends, simulates, or feigns.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) His anti-politics act may just be a shtick – pretending he's still on Have I Got News for You, satirising politics even though he's right at the centre of it – but it liberates him from the usual constraints.
  • (2) "Obviously [writers in translation] have a disadvantage and there's no sense pretending they don't, of being read in translation," said Gekoski.
  • (3) Tony Abbott pretended to support the renewable energy industry before the election but is now “launching a full-frontal attack” according to Labor’s environment spokesman Mark Butler.
  • (4) The Telegraph's secret taping of Cable and fellow Liberal Democrat ministers while pretending to be concerned constituents has raised eyebrows in some media quarters, but the newspaper has claimed a "clear public interest" defence for its actions.
  • (5) It is hard to tell who has really suffered, and who is only pretending.
  • (6) Respecting the frequency of invalidity this cancer pretends the second place among these diseases.
  • (7) When this parliament votes for another referendum as it inevitably will, thanks to the perpetual crutch that the Greens provide, let’s not pretend it reflects the will of the Scottish people, because it doesn’t.
  • (8) Non-doms could no longer pretend to live in Monaco while living in the UK for four working days a week.
  • (9) But equally, you’re ignoring how these people feel if you try and pretend they don’t feel their area is changing.
  • (10) Additionally, the Schmidt-Furlow investigators looked at instances where female interrogators had fondled prisoners, or pretended to splash menstrual blood upon them.
  • (11) Stewart Lee with a mask made of meat, pretending to be Canadian?
  • (12) Yes, there are other reasons why a boy might take a clock out of its casing & pretend he’d made it.
  • (13) It would be idle to pretend that Cameron doesn't have talents as a leader.
  • (14) Their leaders are charging round the country pretending they are going to get an overall majority, but in their heart of hearts they know it is not true, you can see it in their eyes.” The deputy prime minister, whose party has been in coalition with the Conservatives since 2010, said the next question for the public was “that since neither David Cameron or Ed Miliband are going to walk into Downing Street on their own, who is it the voters want at their side”.
  • (15) By pretending to ignore the scientific evidence, AquaBounty is doing readers a disservice.
  • (16) Pro-Europeans don't do themselves any favours by trying to pretend that it didn't happen.
  • (17) Indeed watching the prime minister singling out unemployed youngsters for uniquely punitive measures while pretending it is for their own good, cheered on by a gang of braying chums, it looks less like the behaviour of a national statesman and more like the petty vindictiveness of a schoolyard bully.
  • (18) And he must not pretend to be ignorant of the consequences of continuing to burn coal or take refuge in a "carbon cap" or some "target" for future emission reductions.
  • (19) During the collection of a one-hour spontaneous language sample from each child the experimenter pretended 20 times not to understand and asked, "What?"
  • (20) He would go around the communities and pretend to have a conversation with people but really his eyes were on the children playing," she says.