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
Derived Forms
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unidentifiableadjective
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identifiableadjective
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overidentifyverb
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well-identifiedadjective
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preidentifyverb (used with object)
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unidentifiablyadverb
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identifiablyadverb
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identifiabilitynoun
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identifiernoun
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identifiablenessnoun
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reidentifyverb (used with object)
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unidentifiedadjective
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unidentifyingadjective
Conjugated Forms
Present
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has identifiedperfect 3rd person singular
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have identifiedperfect
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has been identifyingperfect progressive 3rd person singular
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am identifyingprogressive 1st person singular
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have been identifyingperfect progressive
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is identifyingprogressive 3rd person singular
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identifyingparticiple
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are identifyingprogressive
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identifiessingular 3rd person
Past
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had identifiedperfect
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was identifyingprogressive singular
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identifiedsimple
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identifiedparticiple
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were identifyingprogressive plural
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had been identifyingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of identify
First recorded in 1635–45; from Medieval Latin identificāre, equivalent to identi(tās) identity + -ficāre -fy
Explanation
You might identify a Ming dynasty vase, a suspect in a bank robbery, or an ivory-billed woodpecker. Whatever it is, when you recognize the identity of someone or something, you identify it. The word identify is easy to...well...identify when you notice how much it looks like the word identity (a noun, meaning who or what something is). Only one consonant separates the two words in spelling ("f" vs. "t"), and they are close relatives in meaning as well. You can easily remember the meaning of identify, a verb, when you recognize that it’s just a way to express the act of establishing identity — in other words, saying who or what something is.
Vocabulary lists containing identify
Tier 2 Words for the SBAC ELA Items
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PARCC: Language of the Test (Grade7)
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Jim Burke's Academic Vocabulary List
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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.
Identify what—or who, if you share a cloud drive with your family—is hogging your storage, then delete stuff you don’t need.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 22, 2026
Operation Identify Me was launched in 2023 to find the names of women who had been murdered or died in suspicious or unexplained circumstances in six European countries.
From BBC • Oct. 10, 2025
Identify those desired effects and then work to counter the effects that run contrary to your goals…
From Salon • May 27, 2025
Identify those and ask your doctor the likelihood of each, Fried said.
From Slate • May 2, 2025
Identify the relationship of each chord to the key by both name and number.
From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones
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.
