Synonyms

identify

American

[ahy-den-tuh-fahy, ih-den-] / aɪˈdɛn təˌfaɪ, ɪˈdɛn- /

verb (used with object)

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
to serve as a means of identification for.

His gruff voice quickly identified him.
to make, represent to be, or regard or treat as the same or identical.

They identified Jones with the progress of the company.
to associate in name, feeling, interest, action, etc. (usually followed bywith ).

He preferred not to identify himself with that group.
Biology. to determine to what group (a given specimen) belongs.
Psychology. to associate (one or oneself ) with another person or a group of persons by identification.

verb (used without object)

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.
to experience psychological identification.

The audience identified with the play's characters.

identify British

/ aɪˈdɛntɪˌfaɪ /

verb

to prove or recognize as being a certain person or thing; determine the identity of
to consider as the same or equivalent
to consider (oneself) as similar to another
to determine the taxonomic classification of (a plant or animal)
psychol to engage in identification

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

Conjugated Forms

Present

Past

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.

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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:

identify identifies identified identifying

Miller-Perkins said she would aim to identify any systemic issues and make recommendations to the government to "ensure the welfare and safety of all personnel".

From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026

Today’s sensing technology struggles with smell partly because it tries to identify and measure individual chemicals, a challenging task, said Max Shulaker, chief of Health Solutions at Analog Devices.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026

CAR-T cell therapy works by supplying T cells with new genetic instructions that help them identify and destroy cancer.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 7, 2026

SK hynix said in a statement sent to AFP it was "taking various measures to more objectively identify the characteristics of disease occurrence" and was fully cooperating with government inquiries.

From Barron's ● Oct. 7, 2026

Based on the witnesses’ descriptions of size and the shape of the dorsal fin, area experts were trying to identify the type of shark.

From "The Line Tender" by Kate Allen

Bryant is also transgender and identifies as a female, according to Special Agent in Charge of FBI Seattle Mike Herrington.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026

Surveying the fourth quarter, Pasquariello still identifies a “core bullish framework” and he regards technicals — like sentiment, positioning and seasonals — as supportive.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 6, 2026

A long-term infrastructure plan administered with two-year budgeting “sets clear priorities, identifies the projects that need to get done, and plans how to fund them over time,” proponents said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026

AI identifies buds, flowers or fruit in that footage.

From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026

She shakes her head, her fingertip fixed on the spot which, in her view, at any rate, identifies the Mary Janes.

From "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison

“The Russians, and highly likely the Iranians, have identified that as a potent gap,” says Mike Monnik, the chief executive of DroneSec, a company that tracks global drone threats.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026

It has a survey open which has received 70 responses and identified 16 different UK airports where people have reported negative stoma-related incidents.

From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026

In another video, the boy who was hit, identified by community members as Xavier, jumps over a fourth-floor railing as the student who appears to be the attacker approaches.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026

Launched in February, the feature has already been used by more than one million people, according to Spotify which in June 2022 identified audiobooks as a major growth area.

From Barron's ● Oct. 7, 2026

“Fine. But only because you identified my greatest weakness.”

From "The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street" by Karina Yan Glaser

After identifying the response in the lab grown microglia-like cells, the researchers tested whether the same findings could be reproduced in human brain tissue obtained through neurosurgical procedures.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 7, 2026

Even when bodies are recovered, identifying their identities is a slow and challenging task.

From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026

Litman and other Run for Something staffers first began noticing that candidates in their pipeline were identifying themselves as renters around 2023.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 6, 2026

Spotify built the invite list by identifying Summit’s top listeners in the New York area, while Summit invited others using his profile.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026

For Geisbert, identifying hot strains and classifying the tribes of viruses was like sorting butterflies or collecting flowers.

From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023