Identifying - Definitions from Dictionary.com

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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

i·den·ti·fy

Audio Help [ahy-den-tuh-fahy, i-den-] Pronunciation Key verb, -fied, -fy·ing.

–verb (used with object)

1.	to recognize or establish as being a particular person or thing; verify the identity of: to identify handwriting; to identify the bearer of a check.

2.	to serve as a means of identification for: His gruff voice quickly identified him.

3.	to make, represent to be, or regard or treat as the same or identical: They identified Jones with the progress of the company.

4.	to associate in name, feeling, interest, action, etc. (usually fol. by with): He preferred not to identify himself with that group.

5.	Biology. to determine to what group (a given specimen) belongs.

6.	Psychology. to associate (one or oneself) with another person or a group of persons by identification.

–verb (used without object)

7.	to experience psychological identification: The audience identified with the play's characters.

[Origin: 1635–45; < ML identificāre, equiv. to identi(tās) identity + -ficāre -fy

]

—Related forms

i·den·ti·fi·a·ble, adjective

i·den·ti·fi·a·bil·i·ty, i·den·ti·fi·a·ble·ness, noun

i·den·ti·fi·er, noun

—Synonyms 1. distinguish, place, know, determine.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Identifying

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

i·den·ti·fy Audio Help   (ī-děn'tə-fī') Pronunciation Key
v.   i·den·ti·fied, i·den·ti·fy·ing, i·den·ti·fies

v.   tr.

To establish the identity of.
To ascertain the origin, nature, or definitive characteristics of.
Biology To determine the taxonomic classification of (an organism).
To consider as identical or united; equate.
To associate or affiliate (oneself) closely with a person or group.

v. intr.
To establish an identification with another or others.

[Medieval Latin identificāre, to make to resemble : Late Latin identitās, identity; see identity + Latin -ficāre, -fy.]

i·den'ti·fi'a·ble adj., i·den'ti·fi'a·bly adv., i·den'ti·fi'er n.

Usage Note: In the sense "to associate or affiliate (oneself) closely with a person or group," identify suggests a psychological empathy with the feelings or experiences of another person, as in Most young readers of The Catcher in the Rye will readily identify (or identify themselves) with Holden Caulfield. This usage derives originally from psychoanalytic writing, where it has a specific technical meaning, but like other terms from that field, it was widely regarded as jargon when introduced into wider use. In particular, some critics seized on the fact that in this sense the verb was often used intransitively, with no reflexive pronoun. In recent years, however, this use of identify with without the reflexive has become standard and may have become even more conventional than the reflexive construction. Eighty-two percent of the Usage Panel accepts the sentence I find it hard to identify with any of his characters, whereas only 63 percent now accepts this same usage when the reflexive pronoun is used, as in I find it hard to identify myself with any of his characters.