LARP stands for live action role-playing: players dress up in costumes and act as characters, often with swords and armour. In slang, to larp means to pretend to be someone you're not: an expert, a rich person, a tough guy. People say it on social media and among friends, and it sounds mocking.
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a LARP (game); go to a LARP; larp as + role; be larping; stop larping
- We spent the whole weekend in the forest at a LARP, I played a healer with a wooden staff.
- He's never run a business, he's just larping as a CEO on LinkedIn.
- stop larping as a chef, you burnt the pasta last night
What changed
First versionDear Ms Reed, I felt the second candidate was larping as an expert during the interview.
RevisionDear Ms Reed, I felt the second candidate was pretending to be an expert during the interview.
The email is addressed to Ms Reed and is about a job candidate, while larping is mocking internet slang. In a work review it reads like a jokey online put-down rather than professional feedback. Pretending to be says the same thing neutrally.
LARP as a game is just the name of a hobby, and you'll see it in the news: The town hosts a medieval LARP every summer. Slang larp as is an accusation: the person is passing themselves off as someone else, usually on social media. Cosplay is different: it's dressing up as a favourite character at a festival, and nobody is fooling anyone. In IELTS Speaking, say pretend to be when talking about people; in an essay, use only that.
Your turn
Stop ___ as a crypto expert, you lost all your savings last month.
Show the answer
larping — He poses as a crypto expert even though he lost all his savings, so he's playing a role that isn't his: larping as. Flex means showing off something you really have, and it isn't used with as before a role.
Write to a friend about someone you know who pretends to be someone else on social media. Use larping and say who they pretend to be and what gives them away.
Max is larping as a world traveller on Instagram, but every photo is from the same beach near his house.
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