impostor

IMPOS'TOR, n. [Low L. impostor, from impono. See Impose.]

One who imposes on others; a person who assumes a character for the purpose of deception; a deceiver under a false character. It seems to be yet unsettled,whether Perkin Warbeck was an impostor. A religious impostor may be one who assumes the character of a preacher, without authority; or one who falsely pretends to an extraordinary commission from heaven,and terrifies people with denunciations of judgments.