identify
Americanverb (used with object)
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identifies,
present (3rd person singular)
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identified,
past participle, past
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identifying
present participle
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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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identifies,
present (3rd person singular)
-
identified,
past participle, past
-
identifying
present participle
-
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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identifiabilitynoun
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identifiablenessnoun
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identifiernoun
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overidentifyverb
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preidentifyverb (used with object)
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reidentifyverb (used with object)
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identifiableadjective
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unidentifiableadjective
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unidentifiedadjective
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unidentifyingadjective
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well-identifiedadjective
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identifiablyadverb
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unidentifiablyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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identifysimple
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identifiessimple
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have identifiedperfect
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has identifiedperfect
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am identifyingprogressive
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are identifyingprogressive
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is identifyingprogressive
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have been identifyingperfect progressive
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has been identifyingperfect progressive
Past
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identifiedsimple
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had identifiedperfect
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was identifyingprogressive
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were identifyingprogressive
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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.
See Examples For:
Seventy-three percent of small-business owners now identify as content creators, according to a June report by Constant Contact, a digital-marketing platform for small businesses.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026
The Welsh government said it was providing more than £3.7m this year through the youth support grant "to identify and support young people at risk of homelessness at the earliest possible stage".
From BBC ● Aug. 23, 2026
A police spokesman said: "Sadly, the collision has resulted in multiple fatalities. We are working to identify the victims and contact their families."
From BBC ● Aug. 22, 2026
Police initially struggled to identify suspects, as the descriptions given were generic and a detective compiled an error-ridden photo lineup, according to the center.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2026
No one knows enough about Greek astronomers to be able to definitively identify the creator of the mechanism.
From "Shipwrecked!" by Martin W. Sandler
Like most of us, he identifies as “very much not a mathematician.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026
Another trope Hartnett identifies in asset allocation is “Anything But China.”
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 14, 2026
Manivannan, who identifies as non-binary and uses they/them pronouns, was being interviewed about care and carers in society, when host Sindhu Rajasekaran raised the rehabilitation of criminals, saying she could have no empathy for rapists.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
No line item in FLAG’s federal tax filing identifies a payment to a school, a teacher or an educational distributor.
From Salon ● Aug. 1, 2026
Number 1, a mousy blonde who identifies herself as Marie F, climbs the stairs beside the stage and slouches to a microphone.
From "Will Grayson, Will Grayson" by John Green and David Levithan
In California, 61% of voters recently identified federal inference in November as a “major concern,” according to a UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll co-sponsored by The Times.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 23, 2026
Ms. Van Erem’s team found the university responded promptly to the two incidents it identified.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026
The jury was constantly supervised, and when a potential problem was identified, steps were immediately taken to prevent it becoming an actual issue.
From BBC ● Aug. 22, 2026
The painting was still more dangerous, she argues, because of its status: It was part of a series commissioned by Spain’s King Philip II, who identified with Zeus.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
“It was my husband who first identified the fossilized stegosaur droppings for the university.”
From "Linked" by Gordon Korman
Even identifying the cause of inflation is difficult in the moment, he said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
"Since the attack took place, we have been unwavering in our commitment to establishing the full picture behind the incident and identifying anybody who may have been involved in any way."
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
Even so, identifying how GLP-1 medications influence the brain could provide an important foundation for developing the next generation of obesity treatments.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 20, 2026
However, the state refused to send anything more detailed, as it includes sensitive identifying information like Social Security numbers.
From Slate ● Aug. 20, 2026
Picking her out of this crowd at Grand Trunk is as difficult for me as identifying guests in my parents’ wedding album, where all the faces wear the disguise of youth.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
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.
