Imitation

·noun The act of Imitating.

II. Imitation ·noun The act of condition of imitating another species of animal, or a plant, or unanimate object. ·see Imitate, ·vt, 3.

III. Imitation ·noun That which is made or produced as a copy; that which is made to resemble something else, whether for laudable or for fraudulent purposes; likeness; resemblance.

IV. Imitation ·noun One of the principal means of securing unity and consistency in polyphonic composition; the repetition of essentially the same melodic theme, phrase, or motive, on different degrees of pitch, by one or more of the other parts of voises. ·cf. Canon.