identical

American  

[ahy-den-ti-kuhl, ih-den-] / aɪˈdɛn tɪ kəl, ɪˈdɛn- /

adjective

1. similar or alike in every way.

   The two cars are identical except for their license plates.

2. being the very same; selfsame.

   This is the identical room we stayed in last year.

3. agreeing exactly.

   identical opinions.

   Synonyms:

   equal, congruent, congruous

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identical British  

/ aɪˈdɛntɪkəl /

adjective

1. Also called: numerically identical.  being one and the same individual

   Cicero and Tully are identical

2. Also called: quantitatively identical.  exactly alike, equal, or agreeing

3. designating either or both of a pair of twins of the same sex who developed from a single fertilized ovum that split into two Compare fraternal

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Other Word Forms

• identically adverb
• identicalness noun
• nonidentical adjective
• pseudoidentical adjective
• quasi-identical adjective
• quasi-identically adverb
• unidentical adjective
• unidentically adverb

Etymology

Origin of identical

First recorded in 1610–20; from Medieval Latin identic(us) identic + -al ¹

Compare meaning

How does identical compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• identical vs. fraternal

Example Sentences

An identical request was rejected by the authority last year, despite Warm and Well helping 10,000 people in 2024, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

From BBC

To compare performance directly, researchers assigned identical tasks to different groups.

From Science Daily

Every version of the vaccine contained identical ingredients.

From Science Daily

It showed that the rate of interventions is higher in Germany, but the frequency of mistakes virtually identical.

From BBC

Rather than generating identical posts or obvious spam, AI agents can generate varied, credible content at a large scale.

From Salon

Related Words

• exact
• indistinguishable
• interchangeable