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Differentiation vs Identity - What's the difference?

differentiation | identity |

As nouns the difference between differentiation and identity

is that differentiation is the act of differentiating while identity is sameness, identicalness; the quality or fact of (several specified things) being the same.

differentiation

English

Noun

(-)
  • The act of differentiating.
  • The act of distinguishing or describing a thing, by giving its different, or specific difference; exact definition or determination.
  • The gradual formation or production of organs or parts by a process of evolution or development, as when the seed develops the root and the stem, the initial stem develops the leaf, branches, and flower buds; or in animal life, when the germ evolves the digestive and other organs and members, or when the animals as they advance in organization acquire special organs for specific purposes.
  • (geology) The process of separation of cooling magma into various rock types.
  • (calculus) The process of determining the derived function of a function.
  • Derived terms

    * cellular differentiation * evolutionary differentiation * planetary differentiation

    identity

    Noun

    (identities)
  • Sameness, identicalness; the quality or fact of (several specified things) being the same.
  • * 1997 , Hydrothermal Vent Fauna'', in ''Advances in Marine Biology: The Biogeography of the Oceans , page 111:
  • The difference or character that marks off an individual from the rest of the same kind, selfhood.
  • *
  • A name or persona—the mask or appearance one presents to the world—by which one is known.
  • This criminal has taken on several identities .
  • Sense of who one is.
  • I've been through so many changes, I have no sense of identity .
    This nation has a strong identity .
  • (algebra, computing) Any function which maps all elements of its domain to themselves.
  • (algebra) An element of an algebraic structure which, when applied to another element under an operation in that structure, yields this, second element.
  • Synonyms

    * selfhood * identity function

    Derived terms

    * additive identity * identity card * identity of indiscernibles * identity theft * law of identity * left identity * mistaken identity * multiplicative identity * personal identity * quasiidentity * right identity