fingerprint
Americannoun
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fingerprints
plural
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an impression of the markings of the inner surface of the last joint of the thumb or other finger.
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such an impression made with ink for purposes of identification.
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any unique or distinctive pattern that presents unambiguous evidence of a specific person, substance, disease, etc.
verb (used with object)
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fingerprints,
present (3rd person singular)
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fingerprinted,
past participle, past
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fingerprinting
present participle
noun
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an impression of the pattern of ridges on the palmar surface of the end joint of each finger and thumb
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any identifying characteristic
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biochem the pattern of fragments obtained when a protein is digested by a proteolytic enzyme, usually observed following two-dimensional separation by chromatography and electrophoresis
verb
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(tr) to take an inked impression of the fingerprints of (a person)
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to take a sample of (a person's) DNA
Discover More
Fingerprinting is used extensively in criminal investigation, but it is also used as a means of identification by many organizations.
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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fingerprintsimple
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fingerprintssimple
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have fingerprintedperfect
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has fingerprintedperfect
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am fingerprintingprogressive
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are fingerprintingprogressive
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is fingerprintingprogressive
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have been fingerprintingperfect progressive
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has been fingerprintingperfect progressive
Past
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fingerprintedsimple
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had fingerprintedperfect
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was fingerprintingprogressive
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were fingerprintingprogressive
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had been fingerprintingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of fingerprint
Explanation
The impression or mark that your finger makes on a surface is a fingerprint. And the one-of-a-kind pattern of raised whorls and lines on your fingertip? That's also a fingerprint. The earliest attempts to identify people using the prints their fingers made were in the 1820s, and by 1834 the word fingerprint came into use. To fingerprint someone is to press their finger into a pad of ink and then onto paper; after an arrest, the resulting fingerprints are put on file. The pattern on a person's fingertip is nearly unique, distinct, and won't change during their lifetime, making it a useful way to confirm someone's identity.
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.
See Examples For:
The treatment works by taking a sample of the patient's tumor and identifying its unique mutational signature, or "fingerprint," then using mRNA technology to fight it.
From Barron's ● Aug. 19, 2026
But it would take nearly 45 years and a prosecutor admitting he failed to turn over key fingerprint evidence before the courts threw out Brooks’ conviction.
From Salon ● Aug. 10, 2026
Each element creates its own distinctive set of lines, much like a fingerprint.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 25, 2026
Tracing its source poses particular difficulties for two reasons: an incubation period of up to two weeks before symptoms first appear, and lack of a genetic fingerprint, unlike, say, E. coli.
From Slate ● Jul. 22, 2026
Agents were increasingly trained in what Hoover hailed as “scientific policing,” such as fingerprint and ballistics techniques.
From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann
Turtle is less hopeful about finding fingerprints of life on Titan.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2026
Gotham is able to distinguish between the animals largely thanks to "fluke prints": whales have unique patterns on the underside of their tails, similar to human fingerprints, St. Lawrence explained.
From Barron's ● Aug. 18, 2026
"This is exciting new evidence that something catastrophic happened at Neptune that completely destroyed its original satellites, and we're getting to see the fingerprints left behind by that process."
From Science Daily ● Aug. 14, 2026
Product ecologist at Nature Metrics, Dr George Muscatt, said the eDNA was "tiny traces or fingerprints of DNA that species in that ecosystem have left behind".
From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026
The only sign that anything had happened here was a smudge on the glass wall—probably Jonah’s own fingerprints, smeared against the glass when he’d scrambled out a window.
From "Found" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
I wasn’t fingerprinted at the booth and still don’t understand why.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
Garfield had yet to be arrested, but Jodie had been searched, fingerprinted, placed in a cell and, after interview, was released on bail.
From BBC ● Apr. 7, 2026
Because Cynthia’s white Fiero had been released to Gonzalez before it could be properly fingerprinted, police said it wasn’t useful to the case either.
From Slate ● Apr. 6, 2026
From Sunday, non-EU travellers entering Europe's Schengen open-borders zone will gradually be photographed and fingerprinted at border crossings, as the European Union rolls out its much-delayed automated border checks.
From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2025
For hours the process continued as we were shuttled from one room and official to another, questioned, fingerprinted, sent on to the next post.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
As a high-schooler Busby performed locally; a music career beckoned, but based on his academic performance an FBI recruiter offered him a position in the bureau’s fingerprinting lab.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
Because the countries had no official diplomatic ties, it took months of negotiations to arrange that game, and the Iranians required special fingerprinting and security exemptions at the airport.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 14, 2026
Portugal and Italy do not plan on exempting British nationals from Europe's new fingerprinting and facial scanning checks, the European Commission has confirmed.
From BBC ● May 7, 2026
You can still be tracked through cookies, browser fingerprinting, account logins and other methods.
From Salon ● Feb. 12, 2026
It was a sort of fingerprinting before fingerprinting; it was more like bodyprinting.
From "The Mona Lisa Vanishes" by Nicholas Day
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.
