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''identity'' ⚬ Entries

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''identity'' ⚬｜Definition｜1st｜20260507205239-00-⌔

identity - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

identity (countable and uncountable, plural identities)

  • Sameness, identicalness; the quality or fact of (several specified things) being the same.
    • ✤ Synonyms: identicalness, identicality, sameness; see also Thesaurus: sameness
    • ✤ Antonyms: unidenticality, nonidentity; see also Thesaurus: difference
    • ✤ Coordinate terms: equivalence; fungibility, interchangeability; commensurateness; similarity; resemblance
    • ✤ But whenas a leſſer number of Agreements in each Paralleliſm (provided there were nothing contrary) could not but have been a ſtrong preſumption of the Identity of the Subjects of the Viſions in each Chapter, I mean, That the Two-horned Beaſt and the Whore are one, and the Seven-headed Beaſt in each Chapter the ſame; how fully aſſured muſt we needs be of theſe Identities, the Agreements of theſe two Paralleliſms (thoſe paſſages onely excepted of which I have given ſo fair an account) perfectly exhauſting the whole ſubſtance of each Chapter?1
    • ✤ […] suggesting the two are different stages of the same species. The identity of the two species is further suggested by allozyme analysis […]2
  • The difference or character that marks off an individual or collective from the rest of the same kind; selfhood; the sense of who something or someone or oneself is, or the recurring characteristics that enable the recognition of such an individual or group by others or themselves.
    • ✤ Synonyms: individuality; see also Thesaurus: selfhood
    • ✤ I’ve been through so many changes, I have no sense of identity.
    • ✤ This nation has a strong identity.
    • ✤ His own identity was fading out into a grey impalpable world: the solid world itself which these dead had one time reared and lived in was dissolving and dwindling.3
    • ✤ On the other hand, ME/ɛu/preserved its identity into the early Modern English period, and the early writers on orthography and pronunciation normally distinguish between lME/iu/and lME/ɛu/, the latter of which occurs in words with eME/ɛː/like dew (OE dēaw), few (OE fēawe), hew (OE hēawan), sew (eME ē < ĕ, OE seowian), shrew (OE scrēawa), etc.4
  • A name or persona —a mask or appearance one presents to the world—by which one is known.
    • ✤ This criminal has taken on several identities.
    • ✤ In this show, the competitor’s identity will remain secret until after the vote.
  • (mathematics) An equation which always holds true regardless of the choice of input variables.
    • ✤ Synonym: identity function
    • ✤ The equation (x+y)(x−y) = x−y is an algebraic identity. It is true regardless of the values of x and y.
  • (algebra, computing) Any function which maps all elements of its domain to themselves.
  • (algebra) An element of an algebraic structure which, when applied to another element under an operation in that structure, yields this second element.
    • ✤ Zero is the identity for the addition of real numbers.
  • (Australia, New Zealand) A well-known or famous person.
    • ✤ Synonyms: celebrity, personality
    • ✤ The body of a well known old identity named James Conroy […] was found in the water yesterday afternoon…5
    • 2013 April 4, “Cricket identities consult lawyers”, in New Zealand Herald:
    • 2016 January 13, “Kings Cross identities arrested in connection with murder”, in The Sydney Morning Herald:

Etymology

From Middle English ydemptite, from Middle French identité and its etymon Late Latin idemptitās, identitās, from idem (“the same”) + -tās (suffix forming abstract nouns) as a calque of Ancient Greek ταὐτότης (tautótēs, “sameness”).67

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /aɪˈdɛntɪti/
  • (General American) IPA: /aɪˈdɛn(t)ɪti/, /aɪˈdɛn(t)əti/, [aɪˈdɛnɪɾi], [aɪˈdɛnəɾi]
  • (Australian) IPA: /ɑɪˈdentəti/
    • Audio (Australian): 🔊
  • Audio (US): 🔊

Printed 2026-06-28.

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Footnotes

  1. 1664, H[enry] More, chapter X, in Synopsis Prophetica; or, The Second Part of the Modest Enquiry into the Mystery of Iniquity: […], London: […] James Flesher, for William Morden […], →OCLC, book I, page 264: ↩

  2. 1997, “Hydrothermal Vent Fauna”, in Advances in Marine Biology: The Biogeography of the Oceans, page 111: ↩

  3. 1904–1907 (date written), James Joyce, “The Dead”, in Dubliners, London: Grant Richards, published June 1914, →OCLC, page 277: ↩

  4. 2021 July 28, Fausto Cercignani, “On the alleged existence of a vowel/yː/in early Modern English”, in English Language and Linguistics, volume 26, number 2, Cambridge University Press, →DOI, page 2: ↩

  5. 1887 July 19, “Drowned at Williamstown”, in The Age ‎, Melbourne: ↩

  6. “idemtitẹ̄, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007. ↩

  7. “identity, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000. ↩

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