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Reality vs Identity - What's the difference?

reality | identity |

As nouns the difference between reality and identity

is that reality is the state of being actual or real while identity is sameness, identicalness; the quality or fact of (several specified things) being the same.

reality

English

Noun

(en-noun)
  • The state of being actual or real.
  • :
  • *(Joseph Addison) (1672-1719)
  • *:A man fancies that he understands a critic, when in reality he does not comprehend his meaning.
  • *
  • *:As a political system democracy seems to me extraordinarily foolish,I do not suppose that it matters much in reality whether laws are made by dukes or cornerboys, but I like, as far as possible, to associate with gentlemen in private life.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=(Joseph Stiglitz)
  • , volume=188, issue=26, page=19, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Globalisation is about taxes too , passage=It is time the international community faced the reality : we have an unmanageable, unfair, distortionary global tax regime. It is a tax system that is pivotal in creating the increasing inequality that marks most advanced countries today
  • A real entity, event or other fact.
  • :
  • *(John Milton) (1608-1674)
  • *:And to realities yield all her shows.
  • *(James Beattie) (1735-1803)
  • *:My neck may be an idea to you, but it is reality to me.
  • The entirety of all that is real.
  • An individual observer's own subjective perception of that which is real.
  • (lb) Loyalty; devotion.
  • *(Thomas Fuller) (1606-1661)
  • *:To express our reality to the emperor.
  • Realty; real estate.
  • Synonyms

    * actuality * real world

    Derived terms

    * reality check * reality show * reality television * virtual reality

    See also

    * tao

    Anagrams

    * irately ----

    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