See Also: ego identity(medicine)
identity(dictionary)
identity(medicine)
Identity(money)
identity(dictionary)
Market Identity(money)
Gender identity(health)
Gender-identity (G-I)(health)
Identity (as used in expressions)(encyclopedia)
identity parade(dictionary)

identity (iou)



identity noun. L16.
[Late Latin identitas, from Latin idem same, prob. after entitas ENTITY, but perh. assoc. with identidem repeatedly: thus ident- was established as the combining form of idem. Cf. IDENTIC, IDENTIFY.]
The quality or condition of being identical in every detail; absolute sameness; an instance or example of this. Also, the fact of being identified with. L16.
mistaken identity error as regards who a person is.
H. Fawcett There is no identity of interests between the employers and employed. D. Macdonald The letter to Lang did express..his feeling of identity with the masses.
The condition or fact of a person or thing being that specified unique person or thing, esp. as a continuous unchanging property throughout existence; the characteristics determining this; individuality, personality. M17.
Saki To disguise one's identity in a neighbourhood where one was entirely unknown seemed..rather meaningless. H. Arendt The Jews..had been able to keep their identity through the centuries. Sunday Express The victory sparking off a new sense of pride in national identity.
Math.
a. An equation which holds for all values of its variables. M19.
b. An element of a set which, if combined with another by a (specified) binary operation, leaves the second element unchanged. L19.
c. A transformation which gives rise to the same elements as those to which it is applied. E20.
In full old identity. A person long resident or well known in a place. Austral. & NZ. M19.
New Zealand Woman's Weekly Havelock North identity Mrs C. E. Turner-Williams..at 98 stitches happily on.
Comb.: identity card an identification card; identity crisis Psychology a period of emotional disturbance in which a person has difficulty in determining his or her identity and role in relation to society, esp. as part of the maturing process; identity element = sense 3b above; identity matrix Math.: in which all the elements of the principal diagonal are ones and all other elements are zeros, so that its product with any matrix is identical with the latter; identity parade an identification parade; identity politics a tendency for people of a particular religion, race, social background, etc., to form exclusive political alliances, moving away from traditional broad-based party politics.