identitynoun [ C or U ]
uk/aɪˈden.tə.ti/us/aɪˈden.t̬ə.t̬i/B2 who a person is, or the qualities of a person or group that make them different from others:
The man's identity was being kept secret while he was helping police with enquiries.
I cannot reveal the identity of my source.
The informant was given a new identity (= a different name and new official documents) for protection.
The newspaper photo apparently showed him in Rome but it was a case of mistaken identity (= it was the wrong person).
In prison people often suffer from a loss of identity.
I think my job gives me a sense of identity.
More examples
- He was quite certain about his attacker's identity.
- He assumed a false identity in order to escape from the police.
- To conceal his identity, the man's words are being read by an actor.
- Through a process of deduction , the detectives discovered the identity of the killer.
- Australia has its own cultural identity, which is very different from that of Britain.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Mind and personality
- (a) penny for your thoughts idiom
- -minded
- alter ego
- beauty
- beauty is only skin deep idiom
- better nature
- character
- cognitive
- ego
- Jungian
- mental
- mental age
- mentality
- mindset
- penny
- quirk
- rational
- self
- spirit
- unconscious
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