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Identity vs Meaning - What's the difference?

identity | meaning |

As nouns the difference between identity and meaning

is that identity is sameness, identicalness; the quality or fact of (several specified things) being the same while meaning is the symbolic value of something.

As a verb meaning is

.

As an adjective meaning is

having a (specified) intention.

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

    meaning

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) mening, menyng, equivalent to .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The symbolic value of something.
  • *
  • *:Elbows almost touching they leaned at ease, idly reading the almost obliterated lines engraved there. ¶ ("I never) understood it," she observed, lightly scornful. "What occult meaning has a sun-dial for the spooney? I'm sure I don't want to read riddles in a strange gentleman's optics."
  • The significance of a thing.
  • :
  • (lb) The objects or concept that a word or phrase denotes, or that which a sentence says.
  • (lb) Intention.
  • *(rfdate) (Sir Walter Raleigh):
  • *:It was their meaning to take what they needed by stronghand.
  • Synonyms
    * sense, definition
    Hyponyms
    * proposition
    Derived terms
    * antimeaning * meaning of life * meaningful * meaningless * meaninglessly * meaninglessness

    Etymology 2

    From .

    Verb

    (head)
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author= Lee S. Langston, magazine=(American Scientist)
  • , title= The Adaptable Gas Turbine , passage=Turbines have been around for a long time—windmills and water wheels are early examples. The name comes from the Latin turbo'', meaning ''vortex , and thus the defining property of a turbine is that a fluid or gas turns the blades of a rotor, which is attached to a shaft that can perform useful work.}}

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Having a (specified) intention.
  • Expressing some intention or significance; meaningful.
  • *1839 , (Edgar Allan Poe), ‘William Wilson’:
  • *:I might, to-day, have been a better, and thus a happier man, had I less frequently rejected the counsels embodied in those meaning whispers which I then but too cordially hated and too bitterly despised.
  • Anagrams

    *