[im.pos.ture] n [LL impostura, fr. L impositus, impostus, pp. of imponere] (1537) 1: the act or practice of deceiving by means of an assumed character or name
2: an instance of imposture syn imposture, fraud, sham, fake, humbug, counterfeit mean a thing made to seem other than it is. imposture applies to any situation in which a spurious object or performance is passed off as genuine "their claim of environmental concern is an imposture". fraud usu. implies a deliberate perversion of the truth "the diary was exposed as a fraud". sham applies to fraudulent imitation of a real thing or action "condemned the election as a sham". fake implies an imitation of or substitution for the genuine but does not necessarily imply dishonesty "these jewels are fakes; the real ones are in the vault". humbug suggests elaborate pretense usu. so flagrant as to be transparent "creating publicity by foisting humbugs on a gullible public". counterfeit applies esp. to the close imitation of something valuable "20-dollar bills that were counterfeits".