Etymology
From Middle French identité, from Latin idem (the same).
Noun
identity (countable and uncountable, plural identities)
- Sameness, identicalness; the quality or fact of (several specified things) being the same.
- 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 themself.
- I've been through so many changes, I have no sense of identity.
- This nation has a strong identity.
- A name or persona—a mask or appearance one presents to the world—by which one is known.
- (mathematics) An equation which always holds true regardless of the choice of input variables.
- (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.
Derived terms
- cultural identity
- e-identity
- Euler's identity
- gender identity
- identity card
- identity crisis
- identity document
- identity politics
- identity property
- identity theft
- law of identity
- standard of identity
Credits
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