identity

/aɪˈdɛntədi/

/aɪˈdɛntɪti/

Other forms: identities

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.

Definitions of identity

1. noun

   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”

   type of:

   identification, recognition

   the process of recognizing something or someone by remembering
2. noun

   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, selfhood

   types:

   gender, gender identity

   your identity as it is experienced with regard to your individuality as male or female, both male and female, or neither; 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
3. noun

   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
4. noun

   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