identity - Dictionary Definition : Vocabulary.com

Your identity is what makes you "you." If you are having "an identity crisis," then I guess you can't figure out who you are. Good luck with that.

The noun identity can also refer to a name or persona. Criminals tend to use false identities so they won't get caught. If you falsely identify someone, it is a case of "mistaken identity." The word identity doesn't have to be used for a single person either. People refer to "corporate identity" when talking about what makes a company unique.

PRIMARY MEANINGS OF: identity

1	n	the individual characteristics by which a thing or person is recognized or known
2	n	exact sameness
3	n	an operator that leaves unchanged the element on which it operates

FULL DEFINITIONS OF: identity

1

n the individual characteristics by which a thing or person is recognized or known

“geneticists only recently discovered the identity of the gene that causes it”

“it was too dark to determine his identity”

“she guessed the identity of his lover”

Type of:: identification, recognition
the process of recognizing something or someone by remembering

n the distinct personality of an individual regarded as a persisting entity

“you can lose your identity when you join the army”

Synonyms:: individuality, personal identity

Types:: gender identity
your identity as it is experienced with regard to your individuality as male or female; awareness normally begin in infancy and is reinforced during adolescence; identification
the attribution to yourself (consciously or unconsciously) of the characteristics of another person (or group of persons); personhood
being a person

Type of:: personality
the complex of all the attributes--behavioral, temperamental, emotional and mental--that characterize a unique individual

2

n exact sameness

“they shared an identity of interests”

Synonyms:: identicalness, indistinguishability

Types:: oneness, unity
the quality of being united into one; selfsameness
the quality of being identical with itself

Type of:: sameness
the quality of being alike

3

n an operator that leaves unchanged the element on which it operates

“the identity under numerical multiplication is 1”

Synonyms:: identity element, identity operator

Type of:: operator
(mathematics) a symbol or function representing a mathematical operation