different between identifier vs identify

English

Etymology

identify +? -er

Noun

identifier (plural identifiers)

1. Someone who identifies; a person who establishes the identity of.
2. Something that identifies or uniquely points to something or someone else.
3. A guidebook that helps determine the specific class of an object (such as a mushroom, herb, fish, bird, drug, or mineral), or its individual identity (such as that of a star).
4. (programming, operating systems) A formal name used in source code to refer to a variable, function, procedure, package, etc. or in an operating system to refer to a process, user, group, etc.
6. (HTML) A code that distinguishes a particular element from all other elements in a document.
7. (databases) A primary key.

Translations

See also

• id
• ID

See also

• identifier on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

French

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *identificare.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /i.d??.ti.fje/

Verb

identifier

1. to identify
2. to log in

Conjugation

Derived terms

Further reading

• “identifier” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

English

Etymology

From French identifier, from Medieval Latin identicus + Latin faci?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a??d?n.t?.fa?/, /??d?n.t?.fa?/
• Hyphenation: iden?ti?fy

Verb

identify (third-person singular simple present identifies, present participle identifying, simple past and past participle identified)

1. (transitive) To establish the identity of someone or something.
2. (transitive) To disclose the identity of someone.

3. (transitive, biology) To establish the taxonomic classification of an organism.
4. (transitive) To equate or make the same; to unite or combine into one.
   • 1809, David Ramsay, History of South Carolina

     Every precaution is taken to identify the interests of the people and of the rulers.

   • 18 February, 1780, Edmund Burke, Speech on Economical Reform

     Let us identify, let us incorporate ourselves with the people.

5. (reflexive) To have a strong affinity with; to feel oneself to be modelled on or connected to.
   • 1999, Joyce Crick, translating Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams, Oxford 2008, p. 117:

     The dream is given a new interpretation if in her dream she means not herself but her friend, if she has put herself in the place of her friend, or, as we may say, she has identified [transl. identifiziert] herself with her. (Der Traum erhält eine neue Deutung, wenn sie im Traum nicht sich, sondern die Freundin meint, wenn sie sich an die Stelle der Freundin gesetzt oder, wie wir sagen können, sich mit ihr identifiziert hat.)

   • 2012, Christoper Zara, Tortured Artists: From Picasso and Monroe to Warhol and Winehouse, the Twisted Secrets of the World's Most Creative Minds, part 1, chapter 1, 29

     Cash endures because his most well-known songs—“I Walk the Line” and “Ring of Fire” among them—weave deeply personal narratives with which listeners of all stripes can effortlessly identify.

6. (intransitive) To associate oneself with some group.
7. (intransitive) To claim an identity; to describe oneself as a member of a group; to assert the use of a particular term to describe oneself.

Synonyms

• to ID

Related terms

• identic
• identical
• identification
• identifier
• identifyee
• identity
• identify with

Translations

Further reading

• identify in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• identify in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• identify at OneLook Dictionary Search