identify
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.
to serve as a means of identification for: His gruff voice quickly identified him.
to make, represent to be, or regard or treat as the same or identical: They identified Jones with the progress of the company.
to associate in name, feeling, interest, action, etc. (usually followed by with): He preferred not to identify himself with that group.
Biology. to determine to what group (a given specimen) belongs.
Psychology. to associate (one or oneself) with another person or a group of persons by identification.
to associate oneself in feeling, interest, action, etc., with a specified group or belief system (usually followed by as or with): He identifies as bisexual. She identifies with feminism. My family identifies Hispanic.
to experience psychological identification: The audience identified with the play's characters.
Origin of identify
1Other words for identify
Other words from identify
- i·den·ti·fi·a·ble, adjective
- i·den·ti·fi·a·bil·i·ty, i·den·ti·fi·a·ble·ness, noun
- i·den·ti·fi·er, noun
- o·ver·i·den·ti·fy, verb, o·ver·i·den·ti·fied, o·ver·i·den·ti·fy·ing.
- pre·i·den·ti·fy, verb (used with object), pre·i·den·ti·fied, pre·i·den·ti·fy·ing.
- re·i·den·ti·fy, verb (used with object), re·i·den·ti·fied, re·i·den·ti·fy·ing.
- un·i·den·ti·fi·a·ble, adjective
- un·i·den·ti·fi·a·bly, adverb
- un·i·den·ti·fied, adjective
- un·i·den·ti·fy·ing, adjective
- well-i·den·ti·fied, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use identify in a sentence
Identifying and excising faulty accounts takes up more and more of their time as the country splinters again.
ISIS Fighters Are Killing Faster than Statisticians Can Count | Peter Schwartzstein | December 5, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTThe subedar asked him for help in identifying and eliminating Uzbeks and other al Qaeda-linked fighters in North Waziristan.
Obama’s Deadly Informants: The Drone Spotters of Pakistan | Umar Farooq, Syed Fakhar Kakakhel | November 12, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTIdentifying targets for the lethal American drone attacks in Pakistan was always dangerous.
Obama’s Deadly Informants: The Drone Spotters of Pakistan | Umar Farooq, Syed Fakhar Kakakhel | November 12, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTIt did it by understanding what moves them, by identifying their most personal motivations (and fears).
Identifying patients with an infection, isolating them, and providing quality care, are the key methods needed to stop Ebola.
Why New York’s Ebola Case Will Hurt Infected Patients Everywhere | Abby Haglage | October 24, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
This distinction is very useful in identifying young birds and females, which are sometimes very much alike.
Birds of Guernsey (1879) | Cecil SmithHe must have had plenty of opportunity of identifying it, though he does not tell us whether he preserved it.
Birds of Guernsey (1879) | Cecil SmithThat suddenly altered tone had awakened an elusive memory, but neither of them could succeed in identifying it.
Dope | Sax RohmerThe plan of identifying people by their finger-prints, although at first used only on criminals, is now put to many other uses.
The Wonder Book of Knowledge | VariousWhat identifying features does it have that will enable us to recognize it?
Islands of Space | John W Campbell
British Dictionary definitions for identify
/ (aɪˈdɛntɪˌfaɪ) /
to prove or recognize as being a certain person or thing; determine the identity of
to consider as the same or equivalent
(also intr often foll by with) to consider (oneself) as similar to another
to determine the taxonomic classification of (a plant or animal)
(intr usually foll by with) psychol to engage in identification
Derived forms of identify
- identifiable, adjective
- identifiably, adverb
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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