identify

English [edit]

Etymology [edit]

From French identifier, from Medieval Latin identicus + Latin faciō.

Pronunciation [edit]

IPA: /aɪˈdɛn.tɪ.faɪ/, X-SAMPA: /aI"dEn.tI.fai/
Audio (US)
(file)

Verb [edit]

identify (third-person singular simple present identifies, present participle identifying, simple past and past participle identified)

(transitive) To establish the identity of someone or something.
- 1953, Enforcement Regulations of the Name Act:
  
  The formal name of a national having domiciliary register shall be identified by the national identity card;
(transitive) (biology) To establish the taxonomic classification of an organism.
- 2000, Proclamation 7319:
  
  A recent biological inventory uncovered 41 species and 2 subspecies of insects new to science and many species not before identified in the State of Washington.
(transitive) To equate two or more things.
(reflexive) To have a strong affinity with; to feel oneself to be modelled on or connected to.
- 1999, Joyce Crick, translating Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams, Oxford 2008, p. 117:
  
  The dream is given a new interpretation if in her dream she means not herself but her friend, if she has put herself in the place of her friend, or, as we may say, she has identified [transl. identifieirt] herself with her.
(intransitive) To associate oneself with some group.
- 1983, S:Presidential Radio Address - 26 February 1983:
  
  Now, the vast majority of us identify with the second group, the one that believes in trusting the wisdom of the people rather than taking power away from them and concentrating it in the other hands.
(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.
- 2010 Feb. 6, 2010, “Youth Who Self-Identify as Gay, Lesbian or Bisexual at Higher Suicide Risk, Say Researchers”^[1], Science Daily:
  
  "The main message is that it's the interface between individuals and society that causes students who identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual the most distress," said study first author Yue Zhao.
(transitive, topology) To map a number of points to one.