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Recognition vs Identify - What's the difference?

recognition | identify |

As a noun recognition

is the act of recognizing or the condition of being recognized.

As a verb identify is

to establish the identity of someone or something.

recognition

English

Noun

(en-noun)
  • the act of recognizing or the condition of being recognized
  • He looked at her for ten full minutes before recognition dawned.
  • * 1900 , , The House Behind the Cedars , Chapter I,
  • Warwick observed, as they passed through the respectable quarter, that few people who met the girl greeted her, and that some others whom she passed at gates or doorways gave her no sign of recognition ; from which he inferred that she was possibly a visitor in the town and not well acquainted.
  • an awareness that something observed has been observed before
  • acceptance as valid or true
  • The law was a recognition of their civil rights.
  • *
  • With fresh material, taxonomic conclusions are leavened by recognition that the material examined reflects the site it occupied; a herbarium packet gives one only a small fraction of the data desirable for sound conclusions. Herbarium material does not, indeed, allow one to extrapolate safely: what you see is what you get
  • official acceptance of the status of a new government by that of another country
  • honour, favourable note, or attention
  • The charity gained plenty of recognition for its efforts, but little money.

    Derived terms

    * character recognition * OCR / optical character recognition * speech recognition * voice recognition

    See also

    * ("recognition" on Wikipedia) * identification *

    identify

    English

    Verb

  • To establish the identity of someone or something.
  • *
  • (biology) To establish the taxonomic classification of an organism.
  • *
  • To equate or make the same; to unite or combine into one.
  • * D. Ramsay
  • Every precaution is taken to identify the interests of the people and of the rulers.
  • * Burke
  • Let us identify , let us incorporate ourselves with the people.
  • (reflexive) To have a strong affinity (with); to feel oneself to be modelled on or connected to.
  • * 1999 , Joyce Crick, translating Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams , Oxford 2008, p. 117:
  • The dream is given a new interpretation if in her dream she means not herself but her friend, if she has put herself in the place of her friend, or, as we may say, she has identified herself with her.
  • To associate oneself with some group.
  • *
  • To claim an identity; to describe oneself as a member of a group; to assert the use of a particular term to describe oneself.
  • * {{quote-magazine
  • , year=2010 , author= , title=Youth Who Self-Identify as Gay, Lesbian or Bisexual at Higher Suicide Risk, Say Researchers , date=Feb. 6, 2010 , magazine=Science Daily citation , passage="The main message is that it's the interface between individuals and society that causes students who identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual the most distress," said study first author Yue Zhao. }}

    Synonyms

    * to ID