Identifies

Identify is a verb that means to recognize or establish the identity of a person or object, or to determine what something is by examining its features. It involves naming or designating a specific entity and often serves as a precursor to actions such as verification, authentication, or data linkage. In everyday language, identification relies on perception, knowledge, and comparison with known categories or identities.

The word identify derives from Latin identitas and the root ident- meaning "the same," passing into English through Old French identifier and later forming the verb with the suffix -fy. The sense of determining identity emerged in Early Modern English and has since broadened to include more formal and technical uses beyond simple recognition.

Applications of identification span many fields. In daily life, people show a government-issued ID to confirm who they are. In law, recognition of a suspect or witness is essential for investigations. In science and taxonomy, identification names a specimen by its diagnostic features or by comparison with a key or reference collection. In computing and business, identity management links individuals or devices to records, accounts, and permissions.

Identification differs from verification: identification determines who someone is without a claimed identity, while verification checks whether a claimed identity is true. Practices such as biometric identification (facial recognition, fingerprints, voice, iris), document-based checks, or database matching are common. In biology, identification often uses dichotomous keys or morphological/genetic evidence to assign a specimen to a species or genus.

Challenges include the risk of misidentification, false positives, and biases in automated systems. Privacy and civil liberties concerns accompany digital identification and biometrics, prompting legal and technical safeguards, data minimization, and transparency. Ethical use emphasizes accuracy, accountability, and the right to contest or correct identity records.