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PlainSpell

identify

iden·ti·fy/aɪˈdɛn.(t)ə.faɪ/verb

identify is spelled I-D-E-N-T-I-F-Y, 3 syllables: iden·ti·fy. The wrong spelling people search most is indentify: about 70 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 35 of all searches for the word. Identify is a verb meaning “To establish the identity of someone or something”.

How many letters and syllables are in identify?

Letters8: I-D-E-N-T-I-F-Y
Syllables3: iden·ti·fy
In writing36 times per million words; the 2,669th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched1; the most searched, indentify, about 70 Bing searches a month (all of them)

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).

How do you spell identify?

Identify is spelled I-D-E-N-T-I-F-Y. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 35 of the searches for identify in either form.

identifythe right spelling2,400 searches a month
indentifyan extra n70 searches a month

Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is identify?

Identify appears 36 times per million words in written English, the 2,669th 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 identify?

  • UK /aɪˈdɛn.tɪ.faɪ/
  • US /aɪˈdɛn.(t)ə.faɪ/
  • US /aɪˈdɛn.(t)ɪ.faɪ/

Identify has 3 syllables, split iden·ti·fy in writing.

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

Forms of identify

  • identifies present, singular, he/she/it
  • identifying participle, present
  • identified participle, past

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

What does identify mean?

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

verb

  1. 1

    To establish the identity of someone or something.

    It was hard to identify the shoplifter because the CCTV records didn't have a clear image.

  2. 2

    To disclose the identity of someone.

    The Associated Press will not identify the suspect of the crime because he is a juvenile.

  3. 3

    To establish the taxonomic classification of an organism.

  4. 4

    To equate or make the same; to unite or combine into one.

    18 February, 1780, Edmund Burke, Speech on Economical Reform Let us identify, let us incorporate ourselves with the people.

  5. 5

    To have a strong affinity with; to feel oneself to be modelled on or connected to.

  6. 6

    To associate oneself with some group; to feel, or believe one feels, the same way.

  7. 7

    To claim an identity; to describe oneself as a member of a group; to assert the use of a particular term to describe oneself.

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

Identify in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchidentifier (to establish the identity of someone or…), s'identifier à (to associate oneself with some group or to have…)
Germanidentifizieren (to establish the identity of someone or…), gleichsetzen (to equate or make the same; to unite or combine…)
Portugueseidentificar (to establish the identity of someone or…), identificar-se (to associate oneself with some group or to have…)
Spanishidentificar, funar (to establish the identity of someone or…), identificarse (to associate oneself with some group or to have…), identificarse (como) ((with as) to claim an identity; to describe…)

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 identify come from?

From French identifier, from Medieval Latin identicus + Latin faciō.

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

What to look up after identify