identity crisis
nounDefinition 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
Wednesday’s debate was expected to further highlight the identity crisis within the Democratic Party. — Abigail Abrams, Time, "Second Democratic Debate Highlights: The Biggest Moments From Night 2 in Detroit," 1 Aug. 2019 Drugs, faddish 1980s’ production aesthetics, the mystifying inclusion of inferior songs, and a protracted recording process during which a frustrated Petty pulverized his hand melded together to create a record with a deep identity crisis. — Michael Washburn, Longreads, "Tom Petty’s Problematic Album Southern Accents," 9 July 2019 Republicans in this state have had an identity crisis. — Jon Caldara, The Denver Post, "Caldara: Republican pigeons for Polis could betray TABOR and give the governor a special session win," 5 July 2019 In this exclusive clip, one cast member in particular begins to have an identity crisis that will be further explored throughout this season. — Sydney Bucksbaum, EW.com, "The Real World clip explores a roommate's crisis of faith with important LGBTQ conversation," 26 June 2019 Everyone seemed to be suffering from personal dilemmas, having to do with identity crises or free-floating angst about the state of the world (let’s just say this family weren’t Donald Trump voters). — oregonlive.com, "What TV and movies say about Oregon: We’ve got sex on the brain, weirdos, and tons of supernatural creatures," 5 July 2019 The acceleration of automation across industries has thrown Accenture and its workforce into an identity crisis. — Lauren Weber, WSJ, "Accenture Retrains Its Workers as Technology Upends Their Jobs," 23 June 2019 Beneath the game that gives the novel its plot, Raskin built a narrative substructure that consists of the intersecting identity crises experienced by the sixteen—sixteen! — Jia Tolentino, The New Yorker, "“The Westing Game,” a Tribute to Labor That Became a Dark Comedy of American Capitalism," 13 June 2019 Since life in Vegas is never dull, the ladies also find the lines between performance and reality blurring as their residency wears on which leads to an identity crises or two both in and outside the ring. — Ruth Kinane, EW.com, "Geena Davis set to guest star on season 3 of GLOW," 10 June 2019These 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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