identity crisis

noun

1

: personal psychosocial conflict especially in adolescence that involves confusion about one's social role and often a sense of loss of continuity to one's personality

2

: a state of confusion in an institution or organization regarding its nature or direction

Examples of identity crisis in a Sentence

He is suffering from an identity crisis.

Recent Examples on the Web

Vogue And The Impossible Job Description For all of Vogue’s financial resilience, Wintour’s descendant must still confront a brand facing an identity crisis. —Lilian Raji, Forbes.com, 19 July 2025

My thirties and forties were filled, too, with passes and rejections (from magazine and newspaper editors, from book editors, from agents), and packed with creative false starts, and the hum of a slow burning identity crisis. —Jessica Berger Gross july 2, Literary Hub, 2 July 2025

Lamont said, as a Democratic Party in the throes of an identity crisis rushed to find larger meaning in the upset. —Mark Pazniokas, Hartford Courant, 26 June 2025

The Fresh Prince is going through an identity crisis. —Shania Russell, EW.com, 14 July 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1941, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for identity crisis

• ecdysis
• haemoptysis
• hemoptysis
• lysis
• phthisis

Medical Definition

identity crisis

noun

: personal psychosocial conflict especially in adolescence that involves confusion about one's social role and often a sense of loss of continuity to one's personality