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:
People hurried to identify victims before they decomposed, in an era before refrigeration.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
“The airline has no program or partnership in place to identify or report customers based on immigration status to government agencies.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
“The strange thing is I don’t identify with Scully in the same way I do with other characters that I played for much less time,” Anderson confesses.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
More generally, Workday highlights that its recruitment tools help recruiters identify candidates who best match a job description based on their skills and experience, supporting rather than replacing human judgement.
From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026
Extensive study and practice are needed to be able to identify and understand these more complex progressions.
From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones
It also requires analysts to use machine learning to analyze and detect risks, including through AI-powered “anticipatory threat intelligence,” which identifies trends or patterns of potential threats before they come to fruition.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026
No line item in FLAG’s federal tax filing identifies a payment to a school, a teacher or an educational distributor.
From Salon ● Aug. 1, 2026
In practice, according to the federal judge who’s spent two years staring at how it works, it identifies almost nobody.
From Slate ● Jul. 31, 2026
It works in parallel with the more well-known Prevent scheme, which identifies potential terror offenders.
From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2026
A senior at a small private high school, the teenager identifies as agender—neither male nor female.
From "The 57 Bus" by Dashka Slater
His lab identified it years ago as one of the thousands of peptides that act as chemical messengers in the human body, one he believed might someday have therapeutic uses for humans.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
Ynyshir Restaurant near Machynlleth in mid Wales was previously ordered to stop serving raw lobster after the council found "significant hazards" were not properly identified.
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026
Paleontologists formally identified the "terror croc" as a distinct species in 2020 and named it Deinosuchus schwimmeri in Schwimmer's honor.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 5, 2026
Over time, her team identified a number of serious deficiencies in the bank’s antifraud program, according to the letter.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026
First, it tells me it has identified the language.
From "Code Name Kingfisher" by Liz Kessler
By identifying areas where the waves moved at lower velocities, the researchers were able to pinpoint the likely location of magma.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 5, 2026
Authorities released a community alert flier on July 29 and got multiple tips that led to identifying the suspect, 27-year-old Rodrigo Melgar, on Friday.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026
Officials released the two notes on Friday, asking the public for help identifying the writer, whose "distinct linguistic characteristics may be recognisable".
From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2026
Researchers are identifying the biological clues that reveal how well dogs are aging, and developing new ways to help them stay healthier longer.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
A cluster of grandees in tweeds and armbands identifying them as minders to the secretary and his entourage stood off to the side in the front.
From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly
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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