to identify.
to issue an ID to.
Go to the admissions office if you haven't been ID'd yet.
Idaho (approved especially for use with zip code).
inner diameter, internal diameter, or inside diameter. Also i.d.
contraction of I had:
I'd never seen anything like it before!
contraction of I would:
If I were you, I'd be careful what I wish for.
identification.
identity.
Military. Infantry Division.
Intelligence Department.
indicating members of a zoological family
cyprinid
indicating members of a dynasty
Seleucid
Fatimid
indicating the names of meteor showers that appear to radiate from a specified constellation
Orionids (from Orion)
indicating a particle, body, or structure of a specified kind
energid
Idaho
identification (document)
Also: i.d. inside diameter
Intelligence Department
Also: i.d. intradermal
See contraction.
1920–25; < Latin id it, as a translation of German Es, special use of es it, as a psychoanalytic term
First recorded in 1935–40
First recorded in 1590–1600
< Latin -id-, stem of -is < Greek: feminine patronymic suffix; or < Latin -idēs < Greek: masculine patronymic suffix
< Greek -idēs -id 1, as singular of New Latin -ida -ida or -idae -idae
From the Latin suffix -idus
First recorded in 1950–55
Use the word id when you talk about the most basic, impulsive part of a person's mind. A baby's instincts for food and comfort, for example, are controlled by her id. In psychology, particularly in psychoanalysis, the mind is divided into three basic parts. The most instinctive of these is the id, the drives for pleasure, food, sex, and aggression. The id is the most chaotic and least organized part of the mind, controlled in a healthy person by the ego and superego. The word id is a Latin translation of the "Es" in Sigmund Freud's "Das Ich und das Es." Both Es and id mean "it."
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Guy and Bruno constitute the two halves of a single personality, the yin and the yang, the superego and the id.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
He meets Janine, his equal in appetite and id, sending him into a tailspin of yearning and loops of Sky Ferreira’s “Everything Is Embarrassing” on sadboi walks.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2026
You can also get your fossil identified by sending pictures to the British Geological Survey or the Natural History Museum id unit.
From BBC ● Feb. 19, 2026
By 2006, American Lawyer magazine observed he “has become so indispensable to Citigroup that he carries an employee id card from the bank.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 6, 2026
The more specific term i.e., short for the Latin id est, means “that is.”
From "Woe Is I" by Patricia T. O'Conner
The voter ID measure is opposed by 55% of likely voters.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2026
"Many people have legitimate reasons for relying on physical ID, whether out of choice, privacy and security concerns, or because they lack the digital skills or means to use digital ID," she said.
From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2026
I’m the executor of the estate and am in the process of obtaining a tax ID to open an estate bank account.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 7, 2026
Instead of showing your ID to a TSA agent, you look into a camera and are sent through.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
The next day, like every day, security guards checked the ID badges of everyone coming and going from Rand headquarters.
From "Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War" by Steve Sheinkin
"I'd had a lot of calls that day from people who cared, who were stunned... and I just felt there was a lightness in his tone about Diana's death that really jarred with me."
From BBC ● Sep. 20, 2026
One young man observed that even the way I’d characterized the change in Bitcoin’s price as a loss of value was unnecessarily pessimistic.
From Slate ● Sep. 20, 2026
None, I’d argue — so long as that filmmaker can present either side of said debate with as much tact as the other.
From Salon ● Sep. 19, 2026
“But then I’d ask, ‘Are you gonna patronize us, or just run through?’
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026
I’d never mentioned Sandy June’s to any of my non-rez friends.
From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith
Chrysalis or -id: applied specifically to the intermedial stage between larva and adult in butterflies: see pupa.
From Explanation of Terms Used in Entomology by John. B. Smith
It was the essential nature of the marriage right, discussed at length in Zablocki, see id., at 383-387, that made apparent the law’s incompatibility with requirements of equality.
From MSNBC ● Jun. 26, 2015
It was the essential nature of the marriage right, discussed at length in Zablocki, see id., at 383–387, that made apparent the law’s incompatibility with requirements of equality.
From Time ● Jun. 26, 2015
“If you look at it in Freudian terms, it’s like the id. It’s this unmasked side of ourselves,” he says.
From Time ● Apr. 17, 2014
The court found that the appellant “plainly manifested,” id. at 17, an expectation that his email would not be scrutinized.
From Forbes ● Feb. 8, 2011
O. N. hlöypa mjolk, id., literally "to make milk leap together."
From Scandinavian influence on Southern Lowland Scotch by George Tobias Flom
Curtis introduced the manager of the Magic Lantern Cinema of Ketchum, Id., who spoke about being traumatized by John Carpenter’s original “Halloween,” Curtis’ breakout role.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 27, 2021
Local bans on personal fireworks have also been implemented in Montana's Yellowstone National Park and other cities like Boise, Id. and Santa Fe, N.M., are working to follow suit.
From Fox News ● Jul. 4, 2021
Take the estimates, the budget, presented by the minister De ca Hacienda, for the past year of 1842:— Revenue 1842, 879,193,400 reals Id. expenditure, 1,541,639,800 id.
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 53, No. 331, May, 1843 by Various
See Damiron, Id. ii. 256-376.541.On the old coteries of Rambouillet, &c., see Hallam's Hist. of Literature, iii.
From History of Free Thought in Reference to The Christian Religion by Adam Storey Farrar
Id., 1st series, chapter 2, and 10th series, chapter 13.
From Fabre, Poet of Science by Bernard Miall
You can also put his documents in a safe place, ID.; verification of all current income, including Social Security and records of assets.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 5, 2026
Longfellow said, “You already gave me an ID. If it’s fake, you fix it. The Pope is dead, let me mourn.”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 4, 2025
“In many cases, a lot of these people have lost their ID. They’re unable to go to the bank. They’re unable to get their bank cards,” Ramirez said.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 17, 2023
"A lot of teenagers do not have access to any kind of ID. We want to keep the platform open to all and be as inclusive as we possibly can be."
From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2021
“Everything got very quiet. There was two hundred dollars in it, and all of Bunny’s ID. The policeman who’d found it said, ‘I think we’d better contact this boy’s family.’
From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt
“And the most important thing is that my name I.D. and my trust factor is elevated dramatically. People know who I am.”
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 10, 2024
They walked for hours, raising their hands when they encountered Israeli troops with guns trained on them to display their I.D. cards — or wave white rags.
From New York Times ● Nov. 28, 2023
He returned with my I.D. and a freshly printed ticket, and informed me that I had 15 days to plead not guilty.
From Slate ● Jun. 21, 2023
The studio motored along, with a new class of top artists such as Jhene Aiko, Lizzo, Marcus Mumford and acclaimed hip-hop producer No I.D. coming through to create.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 20, 2023
Still he ignored me, so I asked for his I.D.
From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover
Like the first silent performers, the animated Minions are mutely expressive ids designed to play like gangbusters around the globe.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2026
They are ids run wild in a society losing its mind.
From New York Times ● Jul. 7, 2021
In the story, that didn’t matter; its currency was “badassery,” a vapid principle many of us worship with our ids.
From Slate ● Oct. 15, 2018
Working outside the studio system, often on shoestring budgets and on personal projects, they have more leeway to barf their ids up onto the screen, sometimes with deeply bizarre results.
From The Verge ● Jan. 31, 2018
It has been suggested that tiny beads seen within the chromosomes of a sexual cell are the ids, viii, 23, 33.
From The Biological Problem of To-day Preformation Or Epigenesis? The Basis of a Theory of Organic Development by Oscar Hertwig
Investigators later ID’d a 17-year-old as their suspect.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 16, 2025
Rodgers, in a silky double-breasted suit and matching dress shirt that paint-chip enthusiasts might have ID’d as “spilled merlot” or “Miss Havisham’s gate,” was seated just behind Nicholaw.
From New York Times ● Jul. 24, 2023
“Anyone can buy, without being carded or ID’d, a can of Reddi-wip or any other canister of whipped cream,” Addabbo told the AP.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 2, 2022
You’ve been doing it for the last year or so where people are just walking around ID’d as being Facebook contractors and they’re just capturing what they see with sensors on their glasses.
From The Verge ● Nov. 1, 2021
“We ID’d a few of those guys, and we went out and brought those guys in.”
From Washington Post ● Apr. 7, 2020
She also ID’ed the man’s hand in the video as her husband’s, according to Newsweek.
From Fox News ● Jul. 15, 2019
The hacker was first ID'ed as a member of LulzSec last month, when private chat logs were leaked to the press.
From Salon ● Jul. 21, 2011
But beware of merely ID’ing a tree, snapping a pic and moving on.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 1, 2023
In a tweet sent Wednesday, Scott-Railton said that details surfaced by other online sleuths had led “to high-confidence ID’ing of more troubling characters” and were referred to the FBI.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 17, 2021
“As we started ID’ing people,” says Schulte, “we realized there weren’t a lot of people who had moved.”
From Slate ● Jan. 4, 2012
Zachs with an H and Zacks with a K. All these men have lived in my phone contacts, unceremoniously IDed with the last name “Hinge” like ear tags on cattle monitored for progress.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 26, 2022
The user also tested it out and found some poor results: “One of my harvestman photos was IDed as a jumping spider, one as a termite, and another one as a crane fly.”
From Slate ● Jul. 9, 2022
New York State plans to approve as many as three casino licenses for the city, and operators and politicians have IDed Times Square as a potential location.
From Slate ● May 26, 2022
Kevin Sheekey, the campaign manager, wrote on Twitter that “3 is the total number of NDAs that have been IDed over thirty+ years pertaining directly” to Mr. Bloomberg.
From New York Times ● Feb. 21, 2020
This must be the vial he’d IDed as Isaac.
From "The Marrow Thieves" by Cherie Dimaline
Another study found that PictureThis worked better than other apps at identifying 17 toxic plants, but it still wasn’t exactly great, IDing 59 percent of them correctly.
From Slate ● Jul. 9, 2022
Or are some so insulated that they don’t know you don’t have to start every text by IDing yourself?
From Slate ● Apr. 26, 2018
“Without it you were stuck with somehow IDing these voters.”
From Slate ● May 8, 2012
When campaigns set out to identify voters’ preferences, what canvassers call IDing, they try to reach people on their home phone line or at their doorstep, because that’s where they’re registered to vote.
From Slate ● May 8, 2012
Wallace wound up the piece by IDing Gastroenterologist as a virtuoso response to the blue flow and schizoid flip of the Tube in its own terms.
From Slate ● Mar. 30, 2012
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.
