Other forms: identified, identifying, identifies
To identify something is to say exactly what it is. A bird lands on the fence and you identify it as a robin; a witness looks along a row of photographs and identifies the man who took the bag.
The word does more than naming. You identify a problem, identify the cause of a fire, identify three candidates worth interviewing — here it means pick out and single out from everything else. Identify WITH is a different thing again: to identify with someone is to feel their situation is close to your own, and it takes with, never to. Identify AS is how a person states which group they belong to. The noun is identification, both the long word on the form and the plastic card in your wallet, and identifiable means able to be picked out.
1verbidentifyTo recognise someone or something and say exactly who or what they are.~46%
“The family were asked to identify the body.”
2verbpinpointTo find or pick out something from among others.~46%
“The report identifies three reasons why the bridge failed.”
synonyms: pinpoint, single out
3verbfeelTo feel that you understand and share someone else's feelings or situation. Used with with.~6%
“I identify with her completely — I had the same argument with my own father.”
4verbbelongTo say that you belong to a particular group. Used with as.~2%
“Most of the people in the survey identify as city dwellers.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 15 sentences found in the wild and placed 15 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Identify came into English from French identifier, built out of Medieval Latin identicus, the same, and Latin faciō, to make. To identify a thing is to make it the same as a name you already hold: this bird, that word for it.
Latin
faciō
Medieval Latin
identicus
French
identifier
English, today
identify
From French identifier, from Medieval Latin identicus + Latin faciō.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA