Deidentify

//ˌdiː.aɪˈdɛnt.ɪf.aɪ// verb

verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To remove personal identifying information (PII) from data, sometimes preserving the original identification data separately; to anonymize data (though it may be possible to reidentify via data aggregation and correlation).

    "So the first step in anonymizing microdata is to “deidentify” (anonymize) the microdata by removing identifiers such as name of business and address (Willenbourg and de Waal 2001; Ramanayake and Zayatz 2010), but this can still leave[…]"

  2. 2
    To cease or forgo identifying (with).

    "[…] will be perceived by others in terms of the imputed qualities of the role, thus making it more difficult for the person to deidentify with that role."

Synonyms

All synonyms
anonymize

Example

More examples

"So the first step in anonymizing microdata is to “deidentify” (anonymize) the microdata by removing identifiers such as name of business and address (Willenbourg and de Waal 2001; Ramanayake and Zayatz 2010), but this can still leave[…]"

Etymology

From de- + identify.

Related phrases

de-identification

More for "deidentify"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.