betoken

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betoken

/bɪˈtoʊ.kən/

Rhymes with -əʊkən

Where it comes from

From Middle English bitoknen, bitacnen, from Old English betācnian (“to betoken, signify, designate”), from Proto-West Germanic *bitaiknijan. Equivalent to be- + token. Cognate with Dutch betekenen (“to mean, signify”), German bezeichnen (“to call, designate”), Swedish beteckna (“to represent, designate, indicate”) and Danish betegne (“to represent, designate, indicate”).

verb betokens · betokening · betokened

transitive To signify by some visible object; show by signs or tokens. There be other 2 signes in often use of which the first is made thus + and betokeneth more : the other is thus made – and betokeneth lesse.
Similar: indicate, mark, note
transitive To foreshow by present signs; indicate something in the future by that which is seen or known. “ Ah ! hospitable land, thou (nevertheless) betokenest war,” i. e., although hospitable, thou nevertheless betokenest war. — Bello.
Similar: portend, presage, forebode

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MLA

"betoken." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/betoken. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

betoken. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/betoken

Chicago

"betoken." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/betoken.

BibTeX

@misc{betoken_2026,
  title = {betoken},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/betoken},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}