identify
Americanverb (used with object)
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to recognize or establish as being a particular person or thing; verify the identity of.
to identify handwriting; to identify the bearer of a check.
- Synonyms:
- determine, know, place, distinguish
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to serve as a means of identification for.
His gruff voice quickly identified him.
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to make, represent to be, or regard or treat as the same or identical.
They identified Jones with the progress of the company.
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to associate in name, feeling, interest, action, etc. (usually followed bywith ).
He preferred not to identify himself with that group.
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Biology. to determine to what group (a given specimen) belongs.
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Psychology. to associate (one or oneself ) with another person or a group of persons by identification.
verb (used without object)
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to associate oneself in feeling, interest, action, etc., with a specified group or belief system (usually followed by as orwith ).
He identifies as bisexual. She identifies with feminism. My family identifies Hispanic.
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to experience psychological identification.
The audience identified with the play's characters.
verb
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to prove or recognize as being a certain person or thing; determine the identity of
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to consider as the same or equivalent
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to consider (oneself) as similar to another
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to determine the taxonomic classification of (a plant or animal)
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psychol to engage in identification
Other Word Forms
- identifiability noun
- identifiable adjective
- identifiableness noun
- identifiably adverb
- identifier noun
- overidentify verb
- preidentify verb (used with object)
- reidentify verb (used with object)
- unidentifiable adjective
- unidentifiably adverb
- unidentified adjective
- unidentifying adjective
- well-identified adjective
Etymology
Origin of identify
First recorded in 1635–45; from Medieval Latin identificāre, equivalent to identi(tās) identity + -ficāre -fy
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Intelligence officers had identified not just one meeting but three, Israeli officials said.
Davies said: "We couldn't identify a motive in this case. There was no previous bad feeling."
From BBC
Supporters say the devices allow law enforcement to quickly identify and locate people they suspect of serious crimes.
From Los Angeles Times
The isotopic signatures also helped identify which melting processes were responsible.
From Science Daily
By examining nearly 7 million individual cells from mice at three different ages, the team identified which cells are most vulnerable over time and what factors may be driving their decline.
From Science Daily
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
