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:
"When someone becomes quite well-known in one area, it will be flagged to our area, so we are forewarned and can identify them a lot earlier before they commit multiple crimes," she said.
From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2026
"So we are going to have to go through the rubble and see how many victims there were on board, as well as identify the helicopter; we couldn’t even see a tail," he said.
From Barron's ● Sep. 16, 2026
Reddit and similar online forums are awash with community members who say they can identify clinical narcissists or other abusive personality types by their tell-tale “shark eyes.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026
The report was heavily criticized for failing to assign blame or identify specific evacuation failures, but officials have said that wasn’t the goal of the McChrystal Group review.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2026
“The late nineties almost forced me to identify myself as a value investor, because I thought what everybody else was doing was insane,” he said.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
The UN Convention on Migratory Species identifies Africa's longest migrations as wildebeest moving seasonally between Tanzania and Kenya in search of grazing and water covering more than 400 miles.
From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2026
While mothering her two teenagers, one of them newly identifies as nonbinary — “It was Laurel’s job to not make a big deal about this” — she obsesses about her husband’s questionable fidelity.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 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
India's Central Water Commission identifies the Kosi, Gandak, Bagmati and Ghaghara as some of the main transboundary rivers.
From BBC ● Sep. 3, 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
Gaza's civil defence agency has identified around 2,000 buildings in the territory that it says are at risk of collapse.
From Barron's ● Sep. 16, 2026
We also inspired people like the journalist Nick Shirley, who has identified fraud in Minnesota and California, to continue the crusade against waste and abuse.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
Family members identified Wehr, who runs a weekly meetup in San Clemente for car enthusiasts, as one of the victims in the crash.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2026
The ASA said the law had changed during its investigations and that ads identified in future would be considered in light of both the law and its own rules.
From BBC ● Sep. 15, 2026
The bell rang and the teacher began to talk, and Hazel’s brain identified her voice as background noise and moved it to the rear of her consciousness.
From "Breadcrumbs" by Anne Ursu
“The Government’s broader counter-disinformation work is focused on identifying coordinated attempts to spread false or misleading information online, not individuals,” it said in a statement.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
He spent years at Citadel, where he developed his investment philosophy before founding Magnetar Capital, growing it to more than $20 billion by identifying opportunities others avoided because uncertainty had driven capital away.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 15, 2026
The report also recommended requiring social media companies to improve protections for electoral candidates online, including rapidly removing abusive content and identifying perpetrators.
From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2026
But the first step, said Knight, was identifying and investigating the issue.
From Salon ● Sep. 13, 2026
On one wall of the Rad Lab hung an isotope chart devised by Alvarez, with brass hooks to hold cards identifying every new isotope and listing its properties—most of them discovered in that very building.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
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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