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id

/ɪd/noun, pronoun

id is spelled I-D: 2 letters and one syllable. It appears 41 times per million words in written English, the 2,438th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, id means “The unconscious impulsive component of the personality in the Freudian psychoanalytic model” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of id is ids.

How many letters and syllables are in id?

Letters2: I-D
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing41 times per million words; the 2,438th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is id?

Id appears 41 times per million words in written English, the 2,438th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce id?

  • /ɪd/

Id has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-ID.wav, En-us-id.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl--id.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with id

Also written: ide.

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Forms of id

  • ids plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does id mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    The unconscious impulsive component of the personality in the Freudian psychoanalytic model.

  2. 2

    Identifier.

  3. 3

    Alternative spelling of ide (the fish)

noun

as ID
  1. 1

    Abbreviation of identification, identifier, or identity document.

    Show me your ID.

  2. 2

    An ident.

  3. 3

    Initialism of image description.

  4. 4

    Initialism of intellectual disability.

  5. 5

    Initialism of intelligent design.

  6. 6

    Initialism of industrial design.

  7. 7

    Initialism of inside diameter, inner diameter, or internal diameter.

  8. 8

    Initialism of industry discount.

verb

as ID
  1. 1

    To identify (an object, etc.).

    Police have been unable to ID the body found in the river.

  2. 2

    To request to see a person’s identification for proof of identity or age.

    The bartender will have to ID you before serving you a drink.

  3. 3

    To identify (as something)

    I have one black grandfather, but I don't ID as mixed race

adjective

as ID
  1. 1

    Initialism of intellectually disabled.

noun

as Id
  1. 1

    IndiaAlternative form of Eid.

pronoun

  1. 1

    Alternative form of id..

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Id in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Spanishcarnet, carné, cédula (identification or identity documentation), ello (id), -ida (dynast), -ido (member of a taxon)
Frenchça (id), -ide (dynast), -idé (member of a taxon)
GermanEs (id), -ide (dynast)
Portugueseid (id), -ida (dynast)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does id come from?

From New Latin id (“it”), chosen by Freud’s translator as a translation of his use of German Es (“it”) as a noun for this concept from the pronoun es (“it”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

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