WordWeb Online

1. The distinct personality of an individual regarded as a persisting entity
   "you can lose your identity when you join the army";
   - personal identity, individuality
    
2. The individual characteristics by which a thing or person is recognized or known
   "geneticists only recently discovered the identity of the gene that causes it"; "it was too dark to determine his identity"; "she guessed the identity of his lover"
    
3. An operator that leaves unchanged the element on which it operates
   "the identity under numerical multiplication is 1";
   - identity element, identity operator
    
4. Exact sameness
   "they shared an identity of interests";
   - identicalness, indistinguishability

Derived forms: identities

Type of: identification, operator, personality, recognition, sameness

Encyclopedia: Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty