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Definition of identity crisis
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 The central story of The Little Mermaid is, of course, 16-year-old Ariel’s identity crisis.
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Michael Landis, Smithsonian, "‘The Little Mermaid’ Was Way More Subversive Than You Realized," 5 Nov. 2019 As the Warriors visit Oklahoma City on Sunday for their second game of the season, both men feel the sting of an identity crisis — and neither team even remotely connects to the past.
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Bruce Jenkins, SFChronicle.com, "Warriors-Thunder matchup relegated to obscurity, but there’s hope," 26 Oct. 2019 Paul Rudd has an identity crisis in Living With Yourself.
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Dan Snierson, EW.com, "Living With Yourself star Paul Rudd on giving himself mouth-to-mouth and that bonkers ending," 21 Oct. 2019 Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, and Annie Potts headline the returning voice cast and Tony Hale is Forky, an arts and crafts project made from a plastic spork who suffers from an identity crisis.
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oregonlive, "Home viewing this week: ‘Toy Story 4,’ ‘Missing Link,’ ‘Midsommar,’ ‘El Camino,’ ‘Red Joan,’ ‘The Forest of Love’," 11 Oct. 2019 Boston cream pie has suffered an identity crisis throughout the years.
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Claire Perez, sun-sentinel.com, "Boston cream pie takes the cake at Kelly’s Landing," 11 Oct. 2019 With The Office going to NBCUniversal and Friends (even after a massive $100 million deal with Netflix that let the streamer air the sitcom for just one year) headed to HBO Max, Netflix is facing an identity crisis.
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Isaac Feldberg, Fortune, "Netflix Snags ‘Seinfeld’ in Five-Year Sony Pact," 16 Sep. 2019 Three weeks in and the ACC faces an identity crisis.
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Matt Murschel, orlandosentinel.com, "College football upsets, officiating errors among top 10 things we learned during Week 3," 15 Sep. 2019 Past seasons had seen Uribe grapple with an identity crisis as a switch hitter, and even at times, resorting to slapping, in limited opportunities.
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Andrew Turner, Daily Pilot, "Daily Pilot Softball Dream Team: Grace Uribe gave Huntington Beach a puncher’s chance," 26 July 2019
See MoreThese example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'identity crisis.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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Time Traveler for identity crisis
The first known use of identity crisis was in 1941
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