token

C2+ Topic:Emotions & Feelings

US /ˈtoʊkən/ UK /ˈtəʊkən/ See IPA manual

noun adj

Meanings

1

noun
a thing serving as a visible sign or symbol of a fact, quality, or feeling

She kept the ring as a token of their friendship.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a thing serving as a... sign symbol mark emblem indication badge evidence expression

Word family

Derived forms tokenismtokenistictokenize

Related forms betoken

Etymology

From Old English tācen ('sign, symbol, evidence'), from Proto-Germanic *taikną, from the Proto-Indo-European root *deyḱ- ('to show').

tācen Old English *taikną Proto-Germanic *deyḱ- Proto-Indo-European

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Topics

Emotions & Feelings Word Formation & Derivatives

# token

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun, adj
**IPA (US):** ˈtoʊkən
**IPA (UK):** ˈtəʊkən

## Meanings
1. a thing serving as a visible sign or symbol of a fact, quality, or feeling

## Examples
- She kept the ring as a token of their friendship.

## Synonyms
- sign
- symbol
- mark
- emblem
- indication
- badge
- evidence
- expression

## Derived Forms
- tokenism
- tokenistic
- tokenize

## Related Forms
- betoken

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: tācen
- Root: *taikną
- Root: *deyḱ-

## Etymology
From Old English tācen ('sign, symbol, evidence'), from Proto-Germanic *taikną, from the Proto-Indo-European root *deyḱ- ('to show').

## AI Etymology
Token comes from Old English tācen ('sign, symbol, evidence'), from Proto-Germanic *taikną, from the Proto-Indo-European root *deyḱ- ('to show'). The historical chain includes Old English tācen, Proto-Germanic *taikną, and Proto-Indo-European *deyḱ-. The quoted older senses, "sign, symbol, evidence" and "to show", supply the semantic anchors for token. The formation is best read as borrowed: the word token carries its older form-history into a compact English lexical shape. In present English it is used as a noun, "a thing serving as a visible sign or symbol of a fact, quality, or feeling". English derivatives include tokenism, tokenistic, and tokenize; related English forms include betoken. The result is a noun and adj whose etymology preserves both the older form and the later English specialization.

## Topics
- Emotions & Feelings
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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