From Middle English token, taken, from Old English tācn (“sign, symbol”), from Proto-West Germanic *taikn, from Proto-Germanic *taikną (“indicator, symbol, sign”), from Proto-Indo-European *deyḱ- (“to show, instruct, teach”) with Germanic *k rather than *h by Kluge's law. Cognate with Scots takin, taiken (“token, sign”), Saterland Frisian Teken (“sign, symbol”), West Frisian teken (“sign, mark, symbol”), Dutch teken (“sign, indication, symbol”), German Low German Teken (“sign, symbol”), German Zeichen (“sign, token”), Danish tegn (“sign, token, character”), Swedish tecken (“sign, indication”), Faroese tekn, tekin (“mark, sign, signal”), Icelandic teikn (“sign, omen”), Icelandic tákn (“symbol”). The verb is from Middle English toknen, from Old English tācnian.
Something serving as an expression of something else.
According to the Bible, the rainbow is a token of God's covenant with Noah.
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A keepsake.
Please accept this bustier as a token of our time together.
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A piece of stamped metal or plastic, etc., used as a form of currency; a voucher that can be exchanged for goods or services.
Subway tokens are being replaced by magnetic cards.
A book token is the easiest option for a Christmas gift.
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A small physical object, often designed to give the appearance of a common thing, used to represent a person or character in a board game or other situation.
Everyone pick a token (hat, wheelbarrow, thimble, etc.) and place it on the Start square.
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A minor attempt for appearance's sake, or to minimally comply with a requirement; a formality.
His apology was no more than a token.
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A member of a group of people that is included within a larger group to comply with a legal or social requirement.
New York Philharmonic has a token of one Negro. The Pittsburgh Symphony ranks high with three tokens. Cleveland has one, and other major symphony orchestras such as Philadelphia, Boston and Chicago still say, "Get back!"1968, Ave Maria, volume 108, page 17:
Five women were tokens on both counts. Comparing racial tokens to nontokens, tokens reported significantly less favorable interpersonal interactions with their White male colleagues.2005, Morris Fromkin, edited by Peter G. Watson-Boone, The Quest for Social Justice III, page 61:
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They were tokens, however: the majority of oppressed people will not experience these benefits. Tokens were used to pacify the masses and provide the mirage that racism was no longer a factor2013, Robert J. Durán, Gang Life in Two Cities: An Insider's Journey, page 208:
Women and racial minorities (e.g., blacks, Hispanics, Asians) often are tokens in organizations or in organizational groups (e.g., departments, boards of directors, management).2013, Vicki Smith, Sociology of Work: An Encyclopedia, page 485:
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Figuratively, Obsolete, Sometimes Evidence, proof; a confirming detail; physical trace, mark, footprint.
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Support for a belief; grounds for an opinion.
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An extraordinary event serving as evidence of supernatural power.
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An object or disclosure to attest or authenticate the bearer or an instruction.
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A seal guaranteeing the quality of an item.
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Something given or shown as a symbol or guarantee of authority or right; a sign of authenticity, of power, good faith.
Say, by this token, I desire his company.c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:
And he said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Exodus 3:12:
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A tally.
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Human sciences, Philosophy, Sciences A particular thing to which a concept applies.
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Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences An atomic piece of data, such as a word, for which a meaning may be inferred during parsing.
For each lexeme, the scanner creates a small data package known as a token and passes this data package on to the parser.2004, Randall Hyde, Write Great Code: Understanding the Machine, page 68:
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Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences The basic unit of data processed by generative AI models during training and inference, often used as a consumption metric.
Artificial intelligence
[…]One judge cited expert testimony that showed that Llama could reproduce no more than 50 tokens from the plaintiffs’ books, though research has since been published that proves otherwise.2026 January 9, Alex Reisner, “AI’s Memorization Crisis”, in Jeffrey Goldberg, editor, The Atlantic, Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, →ISSN, →OCLC:
At some tech companies, including Meta and OpenAI, employees compete on internal leaderboards that show how many tokens — the atomic unit of A.I. use, roughly equivalent to a word fragment — each worker consumes, two people familiar with those companies’ practices said.2026 March 20, Kevin Roose, “More! More! More! Tech Workers Max Out Their A.I. Use.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
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Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences A conceptual object that can be possessed by a computer, process, etc. in order to regulate a turn-taking system such as a token ring network.
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Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences A meaningless placeholder used as a substitute for sensitive data.
The NFT rush in 2021 saw sale after sale of the novel digital assets hit staggering sums. A collection of images by the visual artist Beeple sold for $69m, the main token for the “play to earn” video game Axie Infinity hit a total value of $9.75bn and Coca-Cola raised more than $575,000 from selling items such as a customised jacket to be worn in the metaverse.2022 May 6, Alex Hern, Dan Milmo, “NFTs: the great rush may be over – but are they in actual decline?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
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In May 2025, the president hosted the 220 largest buyers of $Trump and held a private “reception” for the largest 25 buyers, who spent around $148m on $Trump tokens.2026 March 22, Adam Willems, “New crypto regulations likely to be big favor to the Trump family, industry insiders say”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
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Grammar, Human sciences, Linguistics, Sciences A lexeme; a basic, grammatically indivisible unit of a language such as a keyword, operator or identifier.
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Human sciences, Linguistics, Sciences A single example of a certain word in a text or corpus.
Corpus linguistics
However, note the token ontology, ranked the 15ᵗʰ most frequent token in our ontology corpus, occurs 1940 times out of 336,311 tokens, but ontology only occurs 52 times in the BNC – the ratio of two relative frequencies is 10895.2007, Khurshid Ahmad, “Artificial Ontologies and Real Thoughts: Populating the Semantic Web?”, in Roberto Basili, Maria Teresa Pazienza, editors, AI*IA 2007: Artificial Intelligence and Human-Oriented Computing, Springer-Verlag, page 10:
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Medicine, Sciences A characteristic sign of a disease or of a bodily disorder, a symptom; a sign of a bodily condition, recovery, or health.
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Medicine, SciencesObsolete A livid spot upon the body, indicating, or supposed to indicate, the approach of death.
Like the fearful tokens of the plague, Are mere fore-runners of their ends.1610–1614, John Fletcher, “The Tragedie of Valentinian”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, Act V, scene iv:
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Media, Printing, Publishing Ten and a half quires, or, commonly, 250 sheets, of paper printed on both sides; also, in some cases, the same number of sheets printed on one side, or half the number printed on both sides.
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Business, Mining A bit of leather having a peculiar mark designating a particular miner. Each hewer sent one of these with each corf or tub he had hewn.
But the coal-owner refuses to pay for a corf or tub simply on the ground that it contains too little weight, or that it contains “softs” instead of all “hards,”—a refusal technically known by its symbol as “hanging the motties," or by a bolder metaphor as “hanging the hutches,”—the “motties,” or tokens peculliar to the collier who sends up the corf. being hung up, if satisfactory, on the proper “motty-board peg,” if not so, on the “death-board peg;” and it is asserted that “at some collieries as many as 60 or 70 each day, worth to the collier from 6d. to 8. each, are taken from them in this manner.”1864 August 6, “Miners and Their Grievances”, in The Spectator, volume 37, number 1884, page 902:
But worse still was the practice of defrauding them of their earnings, for as their “tokens” were put on to the outside of the tubs it often happened that hundreds were taken off and thrown away; so that they often found, to their exceeding chagrin, when they came to bank, that after having put up with all the abuse and ill-treatment in the mine they had got little or nothing for working all day.1873, Richard Fynes, The Miners of Northumberland and Durham, page 110:
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The “token” is simply a small piece of leather with a given number upon it, and as the colliers work in pairs--not at the same time, but in succession, the one man taking the “fore shift,” the other the “back shift,”—each pair has a specific number, and round the “token” cabin are ranged hooks also numbered to correspond with the tokens the colliers take down with them into the mine; every tub laden with coal that comes to bank has in it one of these “tokens,” and the business of token-keeper is to secure these and lodge them upon their corresponding hooks, so that at the end of each shift, or day of labour, the colliers knows how many tubs he has sent “to bank”.1877, “Northern Industries”, in The Primitive Methodist Magazine, page 172:
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Business, Mining A thin bed of coal indicating the existence of a thicker seam at no great distance.
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Rail transport, Railways, Transport A physical object used for exchange between drivers and signalmen on single track lines.
Although splitting a single-line section into two might seem a simple solution, Williams adds that creating another location where drivers have to get out of the cab and walk to a cabinet to exchange tokens before a train can proceed will further slow down the service: "There must be a better option in the 21st century than putting in an additional token machine."2020 January 2, Graeme Pickering, “Fuelling the changes on Teesside rails”, in Rail, page 61:
From Middle English token, taken, from Old English tācn (“sign, symbol”), from Proto-West Germanic *taikn, from Proto-Germanic *taikną (“indicator, symbol, sign”), from Proto-Indo-European *deyḱ- (“to show, instruct, teach”) with Germanic *k rather than *h by Kluge's law. Cognate with Scots takin, taiken (“token, sign”), Saterland Frisian Teken (“sign, symbol”), West Frisian teken (“sign, mark, symbol”), Dutch teken (“sign, indication, symbol”), German Low German Teken (“sign, symbol”), German Zeichen (“sign, token”), Danish tegn (“sign, token, character”), Swedish tecken (“sign, indication”), Faroese tekn, tekin (“mark, sign, signal”), Icelandic teikn (“sign, omen”), Icelandic tákn (“symbol”). The verb is from Middle English toknen, from Old English tācnian.
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Done as an indication or a pledge.
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Perfunctory or merely symbolic; done or existing for appearance's sake, or to minimally comply with a requirement.
a token gesture
He made a token tap on the brake pedal at the stop sign.
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If the as had been reduced to a token in 240 BC, it was now a little more token than before.1927, Arthur Robert Burns, Money and Monetary Policy in Early Times, page 393:
It sounds very token, another damp squib which will probably end up benefiting more bureaucrats than artists or scientists.1999 June 30, Fiachra Gibbons, quoting John Calder, “Arts and science ‘damp squib’”, in The Guardian:
There are still many churches where the participation of women is token.2000, Cheris Kramarae, Dale Spender, Routledge International Encyclopedia of Women, page 176:
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Of people Included in minimal numbers in order to create an impression or illusion of diversity, especially ethnic or gender diversity.
He was hired as the company's token black person.
The television show was primarily directed toward a black audience, but it did have a few token white people as performers.
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However, it should be noted that wherever ministers are opposed to mixed churches, the racial admixture is token.1958, Social Problems - Volume 6, page 158:
It disputed the NAACP's argument that its minority employment was token, noting that it employed minorities in six years of its seven-year term and hired Blacks as station manager and news director among its five minority hires for full-time positions.1993, United States. Federal Communications Commission, FCC Record, page 7560:
Even appointees who knew their positions were token would coolly take from the situation whatever benefits they could get.1995, Christine N. Qunta, Who's Afraid of Affirmative Action, page 54:
Having been in a university environment that was incredibly hostile to women, coming here seems like heaven. There are a lot of women senior faculty. In the university, there was only one in the department, and she was very token.1996, William G. Tierney, Estela Mara Bensimon, Promotion and Tenure: Community and Socialization in Academe, page 96:
token
verb
Etymology
From Middle English token, taken, from Old English tācn (“sign, symbol”), from Proto-West Germanic *taikn, from Proto-Germanic *taikną (“indicator, symbol, sign”), from Proto-Indo-European *deyḱ- (“to show, instruct, teach”) with Germanic *k rather than *h by Kluge's law. Cognate with Scots takin, taiken (“token, sign”), Saterland Frisian Teken (“sign, symbol”), West Frisian teken (“sign, mark, symbol”), Dutch teken (“sign, indication, symbol”), German Low German Teken (“sign, symbol”), German Zeichen (“sign, token”), Danish tegn (“sign, token, character”), Swedish tecken (“sign, indication”), Faroese tekn, tekin (“mark, sign, signal”), Icelandic teikn (“sign, omen”), Icelandic tákn (“symbol”). The verb is from Middle English toknen, from Old English tācnian.
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To betoken, indicate, portend, designate, denote
dorrẹ̅, dōrī adj. & n. […] Golden or reddish-yellow […] (a. 1398) *Trev. Barth. 59b/a: ʒelouʒ colour [of urine] […] tokeneþ febleness of hete […] dorrey & citrine & liʒt red tokeneþ mene.1398, in Hans Kurath & Sherman M. Kuhn, eds., Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Press 1962, page 1242
The instinct revolted against the inevitable punishment to come, already tokened by those big holes now met in walls and crossings.1928, Edmund Blunden, Undertones of War, Penguin, published 2010, page 149:
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Kant's theory of productive imagination, Schiller's aesthetics of Schein, and Hegel's loosening of the determinacy of concepts by means of the process-oriented dialectical model of rationality token a domain of experience in which single objects have significance that is at the same time superabundant and noncategorical.2018, Fred Rush, “Wittgenstein and the Craft of Reading: On Reckoning with the Imagination: Wittgenstein and the Aesthetics of Reading by Charles Altieri”, in Philosophy and Literature, volume 42, number 1, pages 236–37:
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To betroth
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Human sciences, Philosophy, Sciences To symbolize, instantiate
In which sense does ‘∀p ~(p & ~p)’ cause the tokening of the belief in the subject?2008 August 27, Mikkel Gerken, “Is There a Simple Argument for Higher-Order Representation Theories of Awareness Consciousness?”, in Erkenntnis, volume 69, number 2, →DOI: