token
Americannoun
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something serving to represent or indicate some fact, event, feeling, etc.; sign.
Black is a token of mourning.
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a characteristic indication or mark of something; evidence or proof.
Malnutrition is a token of poverty.
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a memento; souvenir; keepsake.
The seashell was a token of their trip.
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something used to indicate authenticity, authority, etc.; emblem; badge.
Judicial robes are a token of office.
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Also called token coin. a stamped piece of metal, issued as a limited medium of exchange, as for bus fares, at a nominal value much greater than its commodity value.
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anything of only nominal value used in exchange for goods or services, as paper currency.
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an item, idea, etc., representing a group; a part as representing the whole; sample; indication.
The religious movement was an exhibition of latent energy, and a token of what may take place at some future day.
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a person, especially a member of a minority group, who has been hired, admitted, enrolled, etc., to forestall charges of prejudice or discrimination.
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an object, as a disk or figure, used in various board games for marking a player's position or for keeping score.
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Logic, Linguistics. a particular instance of a word, symbol, expression, sentence, or the like.
A printed page might have twenty tokens of the single type-word “and.”
verb (used with object)
adjective
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serving as a token.
At the end of the field trip each child received a token gift to take home as a memento.
The HR complaint was filed by a man who felt his hiring had been meant to add a token male to an all-female staff.
- Synonyms:
- symbolic
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token resistance;
a token amount.
idioms
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by the same token,
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She has a talent as a painter, and by the same token has a sharp eye for detail.
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in proof of which.
The study examined the possible effects of stress on health and, by the same token, IQ and test scores.
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in token of, as a sign of; in evidence of.
a ring in token of his love.
noun
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an indication, warning, or sign of something
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a symbol or visible representation of something
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something that indicates authority, proof, or authenticity
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a metal or plastic disc, such as a substitute for currency for use in slot machines
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a memento
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a gift voucher that can be used as payment for goods of a specified value
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(modifier) as a matter of form only; nominal
a token increase in salary
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linguistics a symbol regarded as an individual concrete mark, not as a class of identical symbols Compare type
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philosophy an individual instance: if the same sentence has different truth-values on different occasions of utterance the truth-value may be said to attach to the sentence-token Compare type
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moreover and for the same or a similar reason
verb
Other Word Forms
- pretoken noun
Etymology
Origin of token
First recorded before 900; Middle English token(e), tokin(e), Old English tāc(e)n, tācon; cognate with German Zeichen, Old Norse teikn, tākn “sign, mark”; teach
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
I went to each grave and stood over it, and called upon the dead, alone there in the dark, to come and give me some token of their presence.
From Literature
While AI workloads are often measured in tokens, or fragments of text processed by large language models, AWUs quantify the amount of digital labor actually added by AI.
From MarketWatch
While AI workloads are often measured in tokens, or fragments of text processed by large language models, AWUs quantify the amount of digital labor actually added by AI.
From MarketWatch
These tokens mirror real-world securities and trade over blockchain rails rather than traditional exchanges.
From Barron's
I didn’t think there was anything she could give or promise me that would be worth more than a hulking pile of gold, but I could see this was probably close, a priceless token.
From Literature
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
