identity

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

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