Emulating is the act of imitating or mimicking someone or something. The crossword solutions for this term are APING (5 letters) and ALA (3 letters). APING is a verb meaning to imitate or copy, while ALA is an abbreviation for 'as lief as, ' which is an old-fashioned phrase meaning 'as much as.' Therefore, emulating can be defined as imitating or copying someone or something as much as possible.