identify
Frequently Asked Questions
- recognize—to be able to tell what something is (and often to know its name), as in He immediately identified/recognized it as a monarch butterfly.
- diagnose or pinpoint, as in My mechanic was finally able to identify/diagnose/pinpoint the problem.
- associate, such as with a certain group or belief, as in She’s known for identifying/associating with the party’s reform wing.
- distinguish, as in Her height identified/distinguished her as the volleyball player.
- establish (who someone is), as in He has been identified/established as the main suspect. Relatedly, to identify someone is to figure out who they are—to establish their identity.
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:
But for those who do need help, an early evaluation is key to effective treatment or to identify reversible causes of memory problems.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2026
Enveda’s platform has produced 17 drug candidates since 2019, and the company says it can identify commercially viable molecules roughly four times faster and at one-tenth the cost of traditional methods.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026
But other AI systems could monitor those interactions, identify problems and intervene.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 22, 2026
It was unable to identify the gunman or others who may have been involved.
From BBC ● Sep. 22, 2026
It was filled with names and addresses of people who could identify him.
From Nazi Saboteurs by Samantha Seiple
Sheeran was raised in England but has said he identifies culturally as Irish.
From BBC ● Sep. 20, 2026
While the 59-year-old identifies with her Social Democrat party's traditional left-wing, she has taken a pragmatic approach to its shift toward the centre.
From Barron's ● Sep. 17, 2026
While mothering her two teenagers, one of them newly identifies as nonbinary — “It was Laurel’s job to not make a big deal about this” — she obsesses about her husband’s questionable fidelity.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026
It also identifies the north-south dipole circulation over East Antarctica as an important link connecting tropical climate conditions with changes in Antarctic ice mass.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 6, 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
“Around major turning points, including the post-global financial crisis disinflation and post-pandemic inflation surge, neither diffusion measure identified inflections in the trend materially earlier than core PCE inflation,” the Nomura economists note.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 23, 2026
Tax records identified the founder and operator of the nonprofit as 59-year-old Ewa Hanna Konca.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2026
This search identified a compound known as 3B6.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 23, 2026
He is identified in court documents as an uncle; there is no suggestion of wrongdoing on his part.
From BBC ● Sep. 22, 2026
Aristotle had denied that the colour yellow is really present in the rainbow, and had identified only three colours; Theodoric insisted that yellow was a fourth colour in the rainbow.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
It alleged that Muse appeared to capture and store customer credentials without identifying itself as an AI agent.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2026
Cusip: A unique identifying number used to identify a security or fund in the U.S. and Canada.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 22, 2026
As well as identifying new release sites, the national strategy will prioritise restoring and reconnecting wildcat habitats to allow the expansion of their range.
From BBC ● Sep. 22, 2026
Detecting those jumps has been difficult, so the ability to monitor them in sound could provide an important new tool for identifying and correcting quantum errors.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 22, 2026
He had been told nothing about the tribes involved; all identifying context had been edited out.
From "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell
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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