Identical

How to spell identical

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce identical

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does identical mean?

1. adjectiveExactly alike in every detail; the same as something else.

Identical in a sentence

• The two contracts were identical apart from the date.

• The twins wore identical jackets to the wedding.

Where does identical come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin idem, a pronoun meaning simply 'the same'. From idem medieval Latin built identicus and the abstract noun identitas, which captured the notion of a thing being one and the same as itself. English adopted 'identical' in the early 1600s, originally in logic and philosophy to describe two things treated as one and the same. Over time the sense softened from strict philosophical sameness to the everyday meaning of 'exactly alike in every detail'. The same idem root sits behind the familiar words 'identity' and 'identify', which is a useful reminder that the spelling runs ident- and not 'idential', the common slip.

How the word is built

• ident- (from Latin idem: 'the same')
• -ic (forming adjective)
• -al (adjective suffix)