Which to use
“taken” is an adjective and “token” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #40,041
- “taken” frequency rank
- #48,832
- “token” frequency rank
- 88873
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | taken | token |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Accusatif masculin singulier de la déclinaison faible de tak. | Lexème ou lexie. |
Where the eye mixes taken and token
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. taken and token follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between taken and token
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: taken is \ˈtakn̩\ while token is \to.kɛn\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - a in “taken” becomes o in “token”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 88873, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
taken is recorded at frequency rank #40,041, classified as anadj, pronounced \ˈtakn̩\. token is at rank #48,832, tagged as anoun, pronounced \to.kɛn\.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 88873, this pair ranks #6,435 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of taken vs token
Shared letters: eknt. Private to "taken": a. Private to "token": o.
"taken" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "token" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "taken" for "token" ever safe?
Which is more common, "taken" or "token"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "taken" and "token" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "taken" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "token" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #6,435 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "taken" and "token" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "toe vs token". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #6,435 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.