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.
They claimed that Hawaiʻi could not identify a sufficient number of these “analogues” to justify its law.
From Slate • Jun. 25, 2026
Their work transformed medicine and eventually led scientists to identify vitamin B12 as the substance in liver that treated the disease.
From Science Daily • Jun. 25, 2026
Its staff spent three months training a machine-learning programme to identify calls recorded by dozens of monitors placed at 10 sites.
From Barron's • Jun. 25, 2026
The team – from the University of Cambridge, British Heart Foundation and George Institute for Global Health - analysed 55 million adult NHS patient records to identify who was being diagnosed with obesity.
From BBC • Jun. 24, 2026
“Yes, that’s the word. This hotelier brings him these parts. Now, this fence used to be a doctor, and he knows how to identify a skeleton’s sex based on, I don’t know, measurements.”
From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros
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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