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View definitions for identify

identify

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Example Sentences

Correctly identifying such trends means being able to plan in advance and then taking advantage of heightened interest.

Reporters Sapien and Sanders worked with Willis to identify several high-ranking NYPD commanders who had been promoted again and again despite long records of serious civilian complaints.

First, the team worked to identify whether they had assigned the most relevant URLs for the keywords.

If scientists are able to identify an immune correlate of protection, however, “and you can demonstrate that kids get that with the vaccine, that’s even more satisfying,” O’Leary said.

The funds were to be transferred to the CPUC quarterly, but the CPUC didn’t try to identify whether any of that money was outstanding.

We have thousands of users who identify themselves as transgendered and they are welcome members of the Grindr community.

He loves the fact that, like on Grindr, users can identify as transgender.

But most likely it was linked to the way priests identify with the poor in the face of government and criminal abuses.

Certainly my instinct is to identify with the police, no matter the circumstance.

The others are difficult to identify, since they reacted with other oxygen-bearing molecules in the soil.

Ordinarily, no attempt is made to identify any but the tubercle bacillus and the gonococcus.

All the same, she was quite at a loss to know how she was to identify the General Maxgregor when he did come.

In some cases proper evidence may be used to identify things where the description in the will is ambiguous.

The thing bequeathed must be described with sufficient clearness to identify it, nothing more is required.

However, both let it pass, and no one through the whole school attempted to identify it.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is another word for identify?

There are a lot of good synonyms for identify—which one to use depends on what exactly you want to mean. Here are some of the main ones:

  • 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.

Sometimes, to identify in some way means to consider some characteristic as an inherent part of your identity (and perhaps to make this publicly known), as in I identify as nonbinary or She proudly identifies as Mexican American. Another way to express this is simply by using forms of the verb be, as in I am nonbinary.

Are identify and determine synonyms?

Yes, identify and determine can be synonyms when they mean the same thing as diagnose and pinpoint, among other things.

Does identify mean the same thing as list?

Let’s say you’re taking a test that asks you to identify the world’s oceans. In this case, yes, you’re required to list them. Of course, if you’re asked to come to the front of the classroom and identify them on a map, you’re really being asked to demonstrate that you can recognize them by pointing them out (as opposed to listing them out loud or on paper).

What is an antonym (opposite) of identify?

There are a few different words that you can use as the opposite of identify.

The most direct opposite of identify is misidentify, which means to identify something incorrectly. For example, a newspaper story might misidentify someone by providing the wrong name. The police might misidentify a suspect—meaning they got the wrong person. A birder might misidentify a bird due to thinking it’s a different one that’s similar.

When identify means to determine, diagnose, or pinpoint something, the opposite of doing this is to overlook or miss something entirely. To misdiagnose a problem is to incorrectly identify something as the problem (when it’s really not).

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On this page you'll find 87 synonyms, antonyms, and words related to identify, such as: analyze, classify, describe, determine, diagnose, and establish.

From Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.

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