identifier

Noun

identifier (plural identifiers)

1. Someone who identifies; a person who establishes the identity of someone or something.
   • The Identifier personally inspects each horse in each race by verifying the lip tattoo, body color, head and leg markings, scars, and chestnut (night eyes).2001, Theodore A. Landers, The Career Guide to the Horse Industry
   • The foal papers are documents recording the horse's registration; no horse can start in any race unless his papers are in the hands of the track's identifier.2004, John McEvoy, Great Horse Racing Mysteries: True Tales from the Track
2. Something that identifies or uniquely points to something or someone else.
   • Prehistoric artists used hand-prints in cave paintings, perhaps as a 'signature'. They might be considered the earliest example of a biometric identifier.2008, Ted Dunstone, Neil Yager, Biometric System and Data Analysis
   • The source stated that the alleged victims wanted the paperwork released after the settlement, but with names and identifiers removed.2016 September 1, Ellie Kaufman, “University of Kentucky sues student newspaper over sexual assault case”, in CNN
3. One who identifies as a particular type or role; one who says and believes that they are a certain thing.
   • While the DOJ and BOJS already calculate data by gender, trans identifiers are not included, it is solely by men and women2019, Raina Simone Henderson, The Cost of Identity, page 80
4. A guidebook that helps determine the specific class of an object (such as a mushroom, herb, fish, bird, drug, or mineral), or its individual identity (such as that of a star).
5. (operating systems) A formal name used in source code to refer to a variable, function, procedure, package, etc. or in an operating system to refer to a process, user, group, etc.
6. A code that distinguishes a particular element from all other elements in a document.
7. A primary key.