token
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
5 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "token", 5-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "token" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "token" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
token is aEnglishnoun. It means: Something serving as an expression of something else. Pronounced /ˈtəʊkən/. It ranks #9,410 in English word frequency. Often confused with ton and town.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | token |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈtəʊkən/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #9,410 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for token is 5 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈtəʊkən/. Corpus data places it at rank #9,410 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 27 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 7 documented wrong-spelling variants for token, with forms such as "otken", "tkoen", and "toekn". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "ton", "town", "tone", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: 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 … Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is token, spelled T-O-K-E-N, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Something serving as an expression of something else.
- 2A keepsake.
- 3A piece of stamped metal or plastic, etc., used as a form of currency; a voucher that can be exchanged for goods or services.
- 4A 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.
- 5A minor attempt for appearance's sake, or to minimally comply with a requirement; a formality.
- 6A minor attempt for appearance's sake, or to minimally comply with a requirement; a formality.
- 7Evidence, proof; a confirming detail; physical trace, mark, footprint.
- 8Support for a belief; grounds for an opinion.
- 9An extraordinary event serving as evidence of supernatural power.
- 10An object or disclosure to attest or authenticate the bearer or an instruction.
- 11A seal guaranteeing the quality of an item.
- 12Something given or shown as a symbol or guarantee of authority or right; a sign of authenticity, of power, good faith.
- 13A tally.
- 14A particular thing to which a concept applies.
- 15An atomic piece of data, such as a word, for which a meaning may be inferred during parsing.
- 16A 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.
- 17A meaningless placeholder used as a substitute for sensitive data.
- 18A lexeme; a basic, grammatically indivisible unit of a language such as a keyword, operator or identifier.
- 19A single example of a certain word in a text or corpus.
- 20A characteristic sign of a disease or of a bodily disorder, a symptom; a sign of a bodily condition, recovery, or health.
- 21A livid spot upon the body, indicating, or supposed to indicate, the approach of death.
- 22Ten 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.
- 23A 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.
- 24A thin bed of coal indicating the existence of a thicker seam at no great distance.
- 25A physical object used for exchange between drivers and signalmen on single track lines.
- 26In a loom, a colored signal to show the weaver which shuttle to use.
- 27A piece of metal given beforehand to each person in the congregation who is permitted to partake of the Lord's Supper.
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.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: otken,tkoen,toekn,tokenn,tokken,tokne,ttoken
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for token
Misspelling Variants of "token"
Frequency rank: #9,410 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter T in our English index: