Emulate: to strive to equal or excel (verb)
The definition of emulate was cited in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. The first time I heard this word was in my English class on Thursday, August 30th, 2018 when we were reading “Coming to an awareness of language Malcolm X”. The word can be found in paragraph 10, which says, “It had really begun back in Charlestown Prison when Bimbi first made me feel envy of his stock of knowledge. Bimbi had always taken charge of any conversation he was in, and I had tried to emulate him.” When first encountering the word I thought it meant imitate because when reading the sentence before it sounds like Malcolm X is trying to copy Bimbi. Although now I understand this section of this passage even clearer because I see how the word emulate can also mean imitate but after rereading the whole passage again I can see that Malcolm X just wanted to excel in conversations like Bimbi.
