Pronunciation: (im"i-tā'shun), [key]
1. a result or product of imitating.
2. the act of imitating.
3. a counterfeit; copy.
4. a literary composition that imitates the manner or subject of another author or work.
6. Psychol.the performance of an act whose stimulus is the observation of the act performed by another person.
7. Sociol.the copying of patterns of activity and thought of other groups or individuals.
a. (in Aristotelian aesthetics) the representation of an object or an action as it ought to be.
b. the representation of actuality in art or literature.
9. Music.the repetition of a melodic phrase at a different pitch or key from the original or in a different voice part.
1. designed to imitate a genuine or superior article or thing: imitation leather.
2. Jewelry.noting an artificial gem no part of which is of the true gemstone. Cf. assembled, synthetic (def. 5).
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.