betoken
Americanverb (used with object)
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betokens,
present (3rd person singular)
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betokened,
past participle, past
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betokening
present participle
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to give evidence of; indicate.
to betoken one's fidelity with a vow; a kiss that betokens one's affection.
-
to be or give a token or sign of; portend.
a thunderclap that betokens foul weather; an angry word that betokens hostility.
verb
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to indicate; signify
black clothes betoken mourning
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to portend; augur
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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betokensimple
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betokenssimple
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have betokenedperfect
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has betokenedperfect
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am betokeningprogressive
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are betokeningprogressive
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is betokeningprogressive
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have been betokeningperfect progressive
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has been betokeningperfect progressive
Past
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betokenedsimple
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had betokenedperfect
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was betokeningprogressive
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were betokeningprogressive
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had been betokeningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of betoken
First recorded in 1125–75, betoken is from the Middle English word bitocnen, bitacnen. See be-, token
Explanation
A dark sky full of clouds might betoken a thunderstorm. In other words, the clouds indicate or point to the fact that a thunderstorm is on its way. You're most likely to come across the word betoken in an English class or a book, since it's primarily a literary word used to express the idea of signifying or symbolizing something. There's often a sense of mystery around the word; for example, a black cat might betoken bad luck, or be an omen of something slightly scary. However, there are plenty of cheerful examples, like when a ring betokens love.
Vocabulary lists containing betoken
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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"The Monkey's Paw" by W. W. Jacobs
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The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
And though releasing a series in the last week of the year doesn’t exactly betoken confidence, I can predict with some confidence that there might be one.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 26, 2025
This “Cyrano” centers the freedom that new forms of drama betoken, and all the ways that the writing of the past can feed them — from Rostand to Emily Dickinson.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 14, 2022
But it doesn’t betoken a path to profitability, in part because the improvement reflected an intensified squeeze on drivers.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 10, 2019
Banks employ armies of people in back offices, looking for discrepancies that may betoken fraud or honest error.
From Economist ● Mar. 22, 2018
To predict or foretell, as from signs or omens; to betoken; to presage; to infer.
From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (2nd 100 Pages) by Noah Webster
The circular patterning also betokens a geometry repeated around official Washington: the Oval Office, the Rotunda, the dome of the Jefferson Memorial.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 12, 2018
Success, and the big paydays it betokens, paradoxically breeds conservatism; failure, which good art courts, is not an option.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 1, 2015
“That man betokens such a level of ignorance and a direct falsification of the existing scientific data,” Brown told host Chuck Todd.
From US News ● Mar. 23, 2015
Not just denies: “That man betokens such a level of ignorance and a direct falsification of scientific data,” Brown said Sunday during an appearance on Meet the Press.
From Salon ● Mar. 23, 2015
Researchers have often wondered whether the Inka collapse betokens a major historical lesson.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
Nominated plays such as Heidi Schreck’s “What the Constitution Means to Me” and Taylor Mac’s “Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus” betokened the emergence of singular off-Broadway talents as major Broadway players.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 6, 2019
“But even that’s a cliché, you know. And then you’ve got ‘the sun peeped through the foliage’ and ‘the ominous black clouds that betokened thunder’—betokened, right?
From The New Yorker ● Mar. 10, 2016
I think Obama really betokened a new day in America.
From Salon ● Feb. 8, 2016
Separate dooms For separate deeds, betokened by how he Runs rings around himself with his long tail, So many turns for such and such a fault.
From Slate ● Apr. 5, 2013
Nothing else could be afforded; but their countenances betokened the state of their hearts.
From The History of Margaret Catchpole A Suffolk Girl by Richard Cobbold
Set designer Donald Eastman places the action in an airy courtyard of broken concrete slabs — the cracks in the cement betokening the fissures that will symbolically swallow up Floyd.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 10, 2021
Steven Soderbergh is an executive producer, betokening prestige and meaning that his name is linked with the title in every press report.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 22, 2017
These days, you might well think, to have your house blurred from Google Street View is the new status symbol, a must-have digital absence betokening your big-ass presence in the world of celebrity.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 14, 2014
Secretary of Agriculture, good crop weather is bad news, betokening bumper surpluses.
From Time Magazine Archive
Tally-ho, tal′i-hō, interj. the huntsman's cry betokening that a fox has gone away: a four-in-hand pleasure-coach.—v.t. to urge on, as hounds.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 4 of 4: S-Z and supplements) by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
