mimesis

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun The imitation or representation of aspects of the sensible world, especially human actions, in literature and art.
• noun Biology Mimicry.
• noun Medicine The appearance, often caused by hysteria, of symptoms of a disease not actually present.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun In rhetoric, imitation or reproduction of the supposed words of another, especially in order to represent his character. See prosopæa.
• noun In zoology, mimicry; simulated resemblance; physical or physiological simulation by one animal of another, or of a plant or other part of its surroundings. See mimicry
• noun The occurrence of symptoms, without organic basis or in the course of some disease, which simulate those of another disease.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun (Rhet. & Biol.) Imitation; mimicry.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun The representation of aspects of the real world, especially human actions, in literature and art.
• noun biology mimicry.
• noun medicine The appearance of symptoms of a disease not actually present.
• noun rhetoric The rhetorical pedagogy of imitation.
• noun rhetoric The imitation of another's gestures, pronunciation, or utterance.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun the representation of another person's words in a speech
• noun the imitative representation of nature and human behavior in art and literature
• noun any disease that shows symptoms characteristic of another disease