The invention discloses a method and a device for identifying a partial discharge pattern. The method comprises the steps of establishing a typical partial discharge model, and obtaining the partial discharge signal of each model; according to the partial discharge signal of each model, constructing a high-dimensional random matrix for each model; according to the spectral distribution characteristics of the characteristic root of the high-dimensional random matrix for each model, constructing a knowledge base; based on the knowledge base, determining the pattern of a to-be-identified partial discharge signal based on the proximity algorithm. According to the technical scheme of the invention, the technical problems in the prior art that the identification rate of the partial discharge pattern is high and the anti-interference performance is poor can be solved.