Identification

How to spell identification

14 letters · 6 syllables

How to pronounce identification

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does identification mean?

1. nounAn official document or other means of proving who someone is.
2. nounThe act or process of recognising or establishing what something or someone is.

Identification in a sentence

• The security guard asked every visitor for photo identification.

• Early identification of the fault saved the company a costly repair.

• You will need two forms of identification to open a bank account.

• Correct identification of the species depends on the shape of the leaves.

Where does identification come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin idem, meaning 'the same', which gave rise to the medieval Latin identitas, the quality of being the same thing or person over time. From that base scholars built identificare, literally 'to make the same' or 'to treat as identical', joining idem with facere, meaning 'to make'. English took the verb 'identify' through French in the seventeenth century, and the noun 'identification' followed as a formal abstraction, naming the act of establishing what or who something is. The long string of unstressed syllables in the middle, the -ifi- before -cation, is exactly where adults stumble, since the schwa vowels give no clue to the spelling. Its close cousin 'identity' shares the same idem root, a useful reminder that the spelling keeps that early i-d-e-n-t pattern intact.

How the word is built

• ident- (from idem: the same)
• -ific- (from facere: to make)
• -ation (noun of action)