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 The occurrence of symptoms, without organic basis or in the course of some disease, which simulate those of another disease.
• 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

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