Meaning of 'identity'

noun

the distinct personality of an individual regarded as a persisting entity

Example: "you can lose your identity when you join the army"

Synonyms: personal identity individuality

noun

exact sameness

Example: "they shared an identity of interests"

Synonyms: identicalness indistinguishability

noun

the individual characteristics by which a thing or person is recognized or known

Example: "geneticists only recently discovered the identity of the gene that causes it"

noun

an operator that leaves unchanged the element on which it operates

Example: "the identity under numerical multiplication is 1"

Synonyms: identity element identity operator