i ‧ den ‧ ti ‧ fy S2 W1 AC /aɪˈdentəfaɪ, aɪˈdentɪfaɪ/ BrE AmE verb ( past tense and past participle identified , present participle identifying , third person singular identifies ) [transitive]
[ Word Family: noun : ↑ identification , ↑ identity ; adjective : ↑ identifiable , ↑ unidentified ; verb : ↑ identify ]
[ Date: 1600-1700 ; Language: Late Latin ; Origin: identificare , from Latin idem ; ⇨ ↑ identity ]
1 . to recognize and correctly name someone or something:
He was too far away to be able to identify faces.
The police took fingerprints and identified the body.
identify somebody/something as somebody/something
Eyewitnesses identified the gunman as an army sergeant.
The aircraft were identified as American.
2 . to recognize something or discover exactly what it is, what its nature or origin is etc:
Scientists have identified the gene that causes abnormal growth.
They identified a number of problem areas.
3 . if a particular thing identifies someone or something, it makes them easy to recognize
identify somebody as somebody
His accent identified him as a Frenchman.
identify with phrasal verb
1 . identify with somebody/something to feel sympathy with someone or be able to share their feelings:
Humans can easily identify with the emotional expressions of chimpanzees.
He identified with our distress.
2 . identify somebody with something to think that someone is very closely related to or involved with something such as a political group:
She has always been identified with the radical left.
3 . identify something with somebody/something to think that something is the same as, or closely related to, something else:
the attempt to identify crime with poverty and social problems
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THESAURUS
▪ recognize to know who someone is or what something is, especially because you have seen or heard them before:
I hadn’t seen her for ten years, but I recognized her immediately.
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Do you recognize this song?
▪ identify to recognize someone or something and say who or what they are:
As they came closer, I was able to identify two of the group.
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It’s delicious but I can’t quite identify the taste.
▪ distinguish to recognize and understand the difference between two or more things or people:
By this age, kids can usually distinguish between right and wrong.
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It’s often difficult to distinguish identical twins from each other.
▪ make something/somebody out to be able to see or hear something or someone – used when it is very difficult to do this:
In the distance, I could just make out the outline of an island.
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He whispered something but I couldn’t make out what it was.
▪ discern /dɪˈsɜːn $ -ɜːrn/ formal to notice or understand something by looking carefully or thinking about it carefully:
I thought I discerned a faint gleam of hope in his eyes.
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A number of differences can be discerned in the data for the three countries.