as in fraud
one who makes false claims of identity or expertise
the famed faith healer turned out to be a charlatan
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Recent Examples of charlatan
This is not a situation where, say, an elderly person of limited means, knowledge and capacity was duped by a charlatan and there’s a viable case for unconscionability.
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Michael McCann, Sportico.com, 27 Sep. 2024
Nadia, the Russian mail-order bride of Jez Butterworth’s 2001 film Birthday Girl, bounces unnervingly among multiple guises: seducer, charlatan, love interest.
—Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, 13 Sep. 2024
In the movie, Spike, the charlatan Faye Valentine, the ex-cop Jet, the young hacker Ed and the corgi Ein chase a new target, an ex-soldier named Vincent who plots to release a bioweapon on Halloween.
—Kambole Campbell, IndieWire, 15 Aug. 2024
This group in particular should have known this and declined to be played by such an obvious charlatan.
—Keith Bromery, Sun Sentinel, 8 Aug. 2024
See all Example Sentences for charlatan 
Michael McCann, Sportico.com, 27 Sep. 2024
Nadia, the Russian mail-order bride of Jez Butterworth’s 2001 film Birthday Girl, bounces unnervingly among multiple guises: seducer, charlatan, love interest.
—Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, 13 Sep. 2024
In the movie, Spike, the charlatan Faye Valentine, the ex-cop Jet, the young hacker Ed and the corgi Ein chase a new target, an ex-soldier named Vincent who plots to release a bioweapon on Halloween.
—Kambole Campbell, IndieWire, 15 Aug. 2024
This group in particular should have known this and declined to be played by such an obvious charlatan.
—Keith Bromery, Sun Sentinel, 8 Aug. 2024
See all Example Sentences for charlatan
Recent Examples of Synonyms for charlatan
Noun
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Shin Ha-kyun’s deadpan performance as a supernaturally gifted corporate fraud investigator sets the tone for this unusual procedural, which follows an auditing team at the deeply corrupt JU Construction firm.Simon Abrams, New York Times, 27 Dec. 2024
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Five years later, a Times investigation revisited the scandal with a trove of new documents that offer a more complex view of Varsity Blues and deeper questions about universities like USC that claimed to be victims of fraud.Matt Hamilton, Los Angeles Times, 27 Dec. 2024
Noun
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The accused and accuser, for their part, might have reason to question the partiality of an investigation conducted in house and whether the inquiry is a sham done to protect the employer.Gabriella Levine, Forbes, 27 Nov. 2024
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The three-piece set is available in silver or beige and includes two matching standard pillow shams.Ali Faccenda, Better Homes & Gardens, 24 Oct. 2024
Noun
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In this essay for The Paris Review, Simon Wu recounts his experiences pining after, and eventually buying, six designer handbags: some real, some real but used, and one fake.Cheri Lucas Rowlands, Longreads, 17 Dec. 2024
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The 49ers began the game with Purdy exclusively under center, and his play-action fakes to Guerendo created plenty of comfortable throws against the Bears’ defense.Kevin Fishbain, The Athletic, 9 Dec. 2024
Noun
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Ball could be that piece to turn the Rockets from pretenders to contenders.Benedict Cosgrove, Newsweek, 19 Dec. 2024
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Just this week alone, there's potential for some of these contenders to fall into the pretender pool.Chase Goodbread, The Tennessean, 20 Nov. 2024
Noun
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The nomination to any responsible position of quacks like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. or Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo would put her to that test.Orlando Sentinel and South Florida Sun Sentinel Editorial Boards, Orlando Sentinel, 11 Nov. 2024
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Her favorite recording reminded me of a duck’s quack.Rivka Galchen, The New Yorker, 14 Oct. 2024
Noun
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Gould observed that Jerry Falwell had taken up the mountebank’s mission of William Jennings Bryan.Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 26 July 2024
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Now, this pallid Color Purple epitomizes the artistic dearth of an era when a cultural mountebank like Winfrey uses race and feminist guile to cheat us of America’s most creative achievements.Armond White, National Review, 3 Jan. 2024
Noun
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However, Macy's Santa is supposed to be the real Santa, so the department store wanted to cut the famous scene where Buddy finds out about the impostor.Kaycee Sloan, The Enquirer, 2 Dec. 2024
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Nearly 600,000 reports of impostor schemes, including romance scams, were received by FTC officials this year, with losses exceeding $2.1 billion.Tom Rogers, Newsweek, 26 Dec. 2024
Thesaurus Entries Near charlatan
Cite this Entry
“Charlatan.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/charlatan. Accessed 5 Jan. 2025.
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