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:
The next task for education reform isn’t merely helping parents identify good schools but understanding what makes schools good—and how to make effective classroom practice routine rather than exceptional.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026
"But CAI's are very complex and are not all the same, even within a 1-millimeter piece of the meteorite. So we have to carefully identify what types they are."
From Science Daily ● Sep. 25, 2026
Those particular metrics help City identify when the right time is to sell a player is - perhaps even before the buying club have spotted a drop in performance.
From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026
More than three-quarters of all Head Start students in the county programs identify as dual-language learners.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 24, 2026
Farther along, the men’s section was also at the siding; it was impossible to identify individuals among the shaved heads glistening in the autumn sun.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
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“Indeed, the post identifies Governor Schwarzenegger as the first witness,” the filing reads.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 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
The 28-year-old had faced mental-health challenges and identifies as female.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2026
The images showed that RNA polymerase identifies the synthetic DNA letters using many of the same biochemical and structural signals it relies on to recognize natural base pairs.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 5, 2026
Neil pulls out a simple black-and-white business card that identifies him as a Guitar Therapist.
From "It’s Kind of a Funny Story" by Ned Vizzini
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The force said the incident was identified on 14 September, and an investigation is under way.
From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2026
Weinstein’s conviction hinged on an account from an Italian model and actor identified in court as Jane Doe 1.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026
But it identified no military fuel shortage, no defense customer waiting for the oil, and no mechanism ensuring that the oil would ever reach the military.
From Slate ● Sep. 25, 2026
Matthew Stamm, a media forensics expert at Drexel University, told AFP his analysis of the image using specialized software "identified traces left by generative AI with high confidence."
From Barron's ● Sep. 25, 2026
But then he thought better of it—he knew that if something happened to him, his body could be identified by the ring.
From "Meltdown" by Deirdre Langeland
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The paleontologist said he hoped to find teeth — or even a lower jaw — because it is key to further identifying the animal.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 24, 2026
Enveda said it found the drug by decoding the chemistry released by the body during intense physical activity, identifying a hormone that naturally suppresses appetite.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026
The team then modified 3B6 and tested numerous versions of the molecule, eventually identifying CS18 as the most effective candidate.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 23, 2026
In the report published after Dugas’ death in 1984, he was referred to as “patient O”—which stood for “outside of California,” simply as a means of identifying him.
From Slate ● Sep. 23, 2026
In my experience, people who have been incarcerated rarely have difficulty identifying the parallels between these systems of social control.
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
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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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