Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To establish the identity of.
- v. To ascertain the origin, nature, or definitive characteristics of.
- v. Biology To determine the taxonomic classification of (an organism).
- v. To consider as identical or united; equate.
- v. To associate or affiliate (oneself) closely with a person or group.
- v. To establish an identification with another or others.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To make to be the same; unite or combine in such a manner as to make one; treat as having the same use; consider as the same in effect; represent as the same.
- To determine or establish the identity of; ascertain that something met with is identical with something otherwise known; ascertain what a given thing or who a given person is; specifically, in natural history, to determine to what species a given specimen belongs: as, the child was identified by its clothing; the owner identified his goods.
- To mark or characterize in such a way as to show what the thing marked is; serve as a means of identification for.
- To make one's self a part of (an organization, movement, cause, etc.); be conspicuously active in the promotion of: as, he early identified himself with the abolition movement.
- To become the same; coalesce in interest, purpose, use, effect, etc.
Wiktionary
- v. transitive To establish the identity of someone or something.
- v. transitive (biology) To establish the taxonomic classification of an organism.
- v. transitive To equate two or more things.
- v. reflexive To have a strong affinity with; to feel oneself to be modelled on or connected to.
- v. intransitive To associate oneself with some group.
- v. intransitive To claim an identity; to describe oneself as a member of a group; to assert the use of a particular term to describe oneself.
- v. transitive, topology To map a number of points to one.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To make to be the same; to unite or combine in such a manner as to make one; to treat as being one or having the same purpose or effect; to consider as the same in any relation.
- v. To establish the identity of; to prove to be the same with something described, claimed, or asserted.
- v. Obs. or R. To become the same; to coalesce in interest, purpose, use, effect, etc.
- v. To coalesce in interest, purpose, use, effect, etc.; to associate oneself in name, goals, or feelings; usually used with with.
WordNet 3.0
- v. identify as in botany or biology, for example
- v. consider (oneself) as similar to somebody else
- v. consider to be equal or the same
- v. give the name or identifying characteristics of; refer to by name or some other identifying characteristic property
- v. recognize as being; establish the identity of someone or something
- v. conceive of as united or associated
Etymologies
- From French identifier, from Medieval Latin identicus + Latin faciō. (Wiktionary)
- Medieval Latin identificāre, to make to resemble : Late Latin identitās, identity; see identity + Latin -ficāre, -fy. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“First of all, I entirely agree with Officer and a Lady when she writes that police officers are members of society and perhaps part of the problem that I have tried to identify is that both the police and civilians can lose sight of this important feature of our policing system and the philosophy of consent which always used to underpin it.”
Question: When Is Crime a Good Thing? « POLICE INSPECTOR BLOG
“Michael's supposed assumptions do not seem to be easy to identify from the brief statements he made in his post.”
“The sin that I need to discern, root out and identify is my own.”
The Huffington Post: Mark Osler: Repentance of an Anti-Gay Bigot
“I'm not sure if identify is the right word, but I have a great deal of respect for Zora Neale Hurston whose writing is brilliant and whose path was difficult.”
“What I was attempting to identify is that many parents and children do not understand all the potential dangers associated with sports-related head injuries.”
The Huffington Post: Helene Pavlov: Sports and the Adolescent Brain
“But to avoid stereotypes and give the character a trait with which the reader can identify is a way to engage them and carry them along for the ride.”
Writer Unboxed » Blog Archive » Answering Questions on Characterization
“What the two cartoon characters readily identify is that the government of Taiwan is still engaged in a civilizing project aimed against citizens it feels are lacking and in need of the strong authority of the KMT to transform them into “better” and possibly more “loyal” citizens.”
Global Voices in English » Taiwan: Racist cartoon causes controversy
“More importantly, there will always be those who want to listen to, send good wishes to, and care for just Catherine, as a separate identify from the blogger, the novelist, the wife, the mother.”
“So they have glommed on to a word they already know and identify from the Ford dealership.”
“What does it say, then, that the character with whom the readers are so clearly supposed to identify is such an unlikable jerk?”
[GUEST POST] Gabriel McKee on Mark Millar's Kick-Ass...and Why it Stinks
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘identify’.
-
EN - academic vocabulary
Use these and get promoted
abandon, abandonment, abnormally, abstract, abstraction, abstractly, abstracts, academia, academic, academically, academics, academies and 3119 more...
-
EU Buzz - Lisbon Treaty
All words of the Lisbon Treaty
(Persons' names, foreign and grammatical words have been eliminated, MWEs have been split up into individual words. Capitalization has been retained if r...conferral, stateless, person, voting, right, subsidiarity, Latvia, Malta, Slovenia, Lithuania, Finland, Estonia and 2614 more...
-
EU Buzz - single words (1+2+3)
1. Strictly EU terms with special European meaning used only in the EU
+
2. Keywords central to the understanding of the EU (people working for the EU are usually able to give thematic...acceleration, action, additionality, administrator, agenda, agricultural, agri-environmental, agriflation, agri-food, applicant, approach, assent and 1325 more...
-
Various words
Words that some students had difficulty pronouncing.
components, corruption, culture, development, diversify, dreams, engineering, essential, establish, focus, hierarchy, identify and 13 more...
-
Technology
forum, profile, identify, register, user, community, sign in, text, address, inbox, key, screen and 53 more...
-
ENVI - non-commercial movement of pet...
You can manipulate this list here: http://www.visualthesaurus.com/wordlists/184552
rabies, categorisation, transponder, point of entry, derogation, veterinarian, safety feature, identification, resubmit, vaccinate, pet, immunise and 71 more...
-
Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
-
my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
-
Learned words
Words which are highly likely to be found in the work of learned writers.
ailurophile, labyrinthine, lagniappe, colleague, anechoic, reglets, fluctuations, scalar, implicit, constitute, mortification, ambassadors and 629 more...
-
Words of the Day
glabella, chirotony, nook-shotten, crapehanger, filemot, swirlie, egosurf, lexiphanicism, Ruritanian, stichometry, chrononaut, faldstool and 2263 more...
-
oneasterism's words
Words that I like, that I don't use often enough, that are new to me, that friends and family have taught me, and so on.
lugubrious, reticent, eschelon, missive, penchant, copious, conspicuous, tranquil, redolent, asinine, inane, dilatory and 625 more...
-
cozycowgirl's Words
perseverate, personification, wiggle, luscious, yar, onomatopoeia, tangecize, juncture, lyrical, hindsight, identify, usurp and 42 more...
-
Contronympho
A list of my most favorite contronyms, words that 'defeat themselves' by having multiple-meanings which contradict. Also called antagonyms, auto-antonyms, autantonyms, Janus words, and self-antony...
over, identify, clear, before, execute, bolt, custom, garnish, left, off, charge, save and 56 more...
-
Remembering
Vocabulary for developing objectives and test items.
Blooms Taxonomy level- Knowledgelabel, recall, recite, remember, acquire, cite, define, identify, list, match, name, reorganize and 4 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for identify.

whichbe Abstractly, this is a contranym. One is making difference ("Your name/distinction is _____") while connecting sameness ("This is part of me!"). May 14, 2008