Definitions
01a symbol of a feeling
B2 · Upper Intermediate Countable noun
n. an object that represents a feeling, a fact, or a memory.
n. something serving as a visible or tangible expression of a quality, emotion, or fact.
日本語:しるし、トークン※
Español:recuerdo
“Please accept this small gift as a token of our gratitude for your help.”
“The silver locket was cherished not for its material value, but as a token of a friendship that had spanned four decades.”
02a voucher or coin substitute
B2 · Upper Intermediate Countable noun
n. a round piece of metal or plastic used instead of money for machines, games, or buses.
n. a piece of stamped metal or plastic used as a limited form of currency or a voucher for specific goods and services.
“You need to buy a token from the machine to use the laundry facilities.”
“The arcade required visitors to exchange their cash for brass tokens before they could operate any of the vintage mechanical games.”
03computing/linguistics unit
C1 · Advanced Countable noun Computing Technical
n. a single unit of data, like a word in a sentence or a piece of code.
n. an individual occurrence of a linguistic unit in a corpus, or an atomic piece of data identified during computational parsing.
“The software counts every word in the document as a separate token.”
“The lexical analyser breaks the source code into tokens, such as identifiers and operators, before the syntax tree is constructed.”
04symbolic or minimal
C1 · Advanced Formal
adj. done only to show you are following a rule, without much effort or real meaning.
adj. performed or existing only as a symbolic gesture or to minimally comply with requirements; often implies a lack of genuine intent.
“The company made a token effort to go green by removing plastic straws.”
“Critics argued that the appointment was merely a token gesture intended to quiet public outcry rather than a substantive change in policy.”
Synonyms
Antonyms
05to represent
C2 · Proficiency Archaic · Literary
v. to be a sign of something that will happen.
v. to serve as a sign or symbol of something; to portend or indicate.
“The dark clouds tokened a coming storm that would last all night.”
“In the ancient poem, the sudden flight of ravens was said to token the fall of the king's lineage.”
06a unit of text in AI models
B2 · Upper Intermediate Countable noun Computing Technical
n. a small piece of text that an AI model reads or writes. A token can be a whole word, part of a word, or a punctuation mark.
n. In AI and computing, a unit of text, such as a word, part of a word, punctuation mark or other character sequence, that a language model processes as input or output. Usage limits and prices are often counted in tokens.
“The chatbot cut off its answer because it reached the token limit.”
“Each prompt token and each completion token counts toward the bill, so long conversations quickly use up the context window.”
Synonyms
Collocations
Common phrases and expressions where native English speakers use the word “token” in context.
Noun
01. AI token
“An AI token is the basic unit of text that a language model processes.”
noun + noun
02. completion token
“You are billed based on every completion token generated by the assistant.”
noun + noun
03. context token
“A context token helps the machine understand the relationship between different words.”
noun + noun
04. input token
“Each input token you send to the server contributes to the total cost of the request.”
noun + noun
05. model token
“The model token represents a specific piece of data within the neural network.”
noun + noun
06. output token
“The system generates one output token at a time until the sentence is complete.”
noun + noun
07. prompt token
“The number of prompt tokens determines how much context the AI can consider.”
noun + noun
08. token count
“Please check the token count to ensure your document fits within the allowed range.”
noun + noun
09. token limit
“If you exceed the token limit, the beginning of your conversation may be forgotten.”
noun + noun
10. tokens per second
“The new hardware significantly increased the number of tokens per second the AI can produce.”
noun + prep
Real-World Examples
“If you go to Tesco you spend £100, but you come in here, I've put £20 on and I still have some tokens left," she said.” “In real-world terms, the context length of a language model is measured not in words, but in tokens.” “If the context window is defined by an upper limit (say 100,000), tokens are the units that measure what fits inside and it’s important to understand that tokens are not words.” “These tokens could be whole words, subwords, or even single characters, depending on the tokenizer’s design.” 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.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Related words
Domains
- Exam level
- CambridgeCambridgeCambridge English QualificationsThe exam suite from Cambridge University Press & Assessment, from A1 Movers up to C2 Proficiency. The benchmark names double as CEFR labels.B2 FirstIELTSIELTSInternational English Language Testing SystemThe 0–9 band test co-owned by the British Council, IDP, and Cambridge. Used for university entry, work, and migration.5.5–6.5TOEFL iBTTOEFL iBTTest of English as a Foreign Language, Internet-Based TestETS's academic English test, the standard route for US university admissions. Scored 0–120, with a 1–6 scale since 2026.1–6 scale: 4.0–4.572–94TOEICTOEICTest of English for International CommunicationETS's workplace English test, big in Japan and Korea. Listening & Reading scores 10–990 and tops out at C1.785–944
- Frequency
- Frequent
- Level
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Updated
- アルファベット
- 読み方の一覧 →
QR code
englishreference.com/q/token
‘외래어’ data: 한국어기초사전 (국립국어원), CC BY-SA 2.0 KR
※ 機械で選んだ訳語です。ネイティブスピーカーによる確認はまだです。
「日本語」 data: JMdict (EDRDG), CC BY-SA 4.0
Traducciones: Kaikki.org (Wiktionary), CC BY-SA 4.0