identify
Americanverb (used with object)
-
identifies,
present (3rd person singular)
-
identified,
past participle, past
-
identifying
present participle
-
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)
-
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.
-
to experience psychological identification.
The audience identified with the play's characters.
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
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
identifiabilitynoun
-
identifiablenessnoun
-
identifiernoun
-
overidentifyverb
-
preidentifyverb (used with object)
-
reidentifyverb (used with object)
-
identifiableadjective
-
unidentifiableadjective
-
unidentifiedadjective
-
unidentifyingadjective
-
well-identifiedadjective
-
identifiablyadverb
-
unidentifiablyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
identifysimple
-
identifiessimple
-
have identifiedperfect
-
has identifiedperfect
-
am identifyingprogressive
-
are identifyingprogressive
-
is identifyingprogressive
-
have been identifyingperfect progressive
-
has been identifyingperfect progressive
Past
-
identifiedsimple
-
had identifiedperfect
-
was identifyingprogressive
-
were identifyingprogressive
-
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
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
PARCC: Language of the Test (Grade7)
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Jim Burke's Academic Vocabulary List
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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:
Ukrainian detective Ivan Dulkay is leading an investigation to identify the Russian soldiers and commanders who killed over 300 people in Bucha.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 26, 2026
But they have shown us something: There are dark passages ahead and enormous changes coming, and none of us can accurately identify the specter who blocks the path forward.
From Salon ● Oct. 26, 2026
One auto repair shop, which its owner asked that I not identify, looked closed, though it was still open.
From Slate ● Oct. 26, 2026
It said these helped identify a person's "physical, emotional, practical and financial needs earlier in their cancer experience, allowing an individual care plan to be put in place"
From BBC ● Oct. 25, 2026
The robot searched through her computer brain to identify the species.
From "The Wild Robot Protects" by Peter Brown
Given rising equity supply, though, markets need household demand for U.S. equities to pick up the slack, despite the volatility Chapman identifies.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 26, 2026
Sensitivity measures how effectively a diagnostic method identifies people who actually have the disease, rather than overlooking genuine cases.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 26, 2026
Horan tells me if evidence which identifies a person is found, they will be questioned.
From BBC ● Oct. 26, 2026
A couple of points about that: First, Solana identifies himself in his Free Press bio as “mayor of San Francisco.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026
Over the course of twenty-five such trials, the subject correctly identifies the symbol ten times.
From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos
One source said a space inside the Foreign Office building, a short distance from Downing Street, had been identified.
From BBC ● Oct. 26, 2026
She knew there was language and a body of research that plainly identified and unpacked what can otherwise be a head-spinning distortion of reality.
From Salon ● Oct. 26, 2026
By comparison, it identified less than $50,000 in spending on AI-generated ads in the 2024 election cycle.
From Barron's ● Oct. 26, 2026
The newly identified object orbits this brown dwarf, creating a remarkable arrangement in which a massive satellite circles an object that itself revolves around a star.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 25, 2026
Some instruments that are identified this way are transposing instruments, but others are not.
From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones
Carrick's position at Old Trafford is under major threat following the club's poor start to the season, with work towards identifying his successor believed to be ongoing.
From BBC ● Oct. 26, 2026
Research on cash transfers is encouraging, Wolfolds said, but "the harder challenge may be identifying who has been affected by AI."
From Barron's ● Oct. 26, 2026
By identifying relationships between skeletal proportions and known lifestyles, the models can estimate how extinct species used aquatic environments.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 25, 2026
“Anthropic ran roughshod over the rights of countless creatives and rightsholders,” the lawsuit charged, “using their works without permission, removing identifying information from those works, and keeping ill-gotten gains for itself.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 25, 2026
They are not so much components of language as components of reason, identifying the ways in which one idea can lead to another in our train of thought.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions 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.
