tokenism

[ toh-kuh-niz-uhm ]
See synonyms for tokenism on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. the practice or policy of making no more than a token effort or gesture, as in offering opportunities to minorities equal to those of the majority.

  2. any legislation, admissions policy, hiring practice, etc., that demonstrates only minimal compliance with rules, laws, or public pressure: Admitting one woman to the men's club was merely tokenism.

Origin of tokenism

1
First recorded in 1960–65; token + -ism

Other words from tokenism

  • to·ken·is·tic, adjective

Words Nearby tokenism

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use tokenism in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for tokenism

tokenism

/ (ˈtəʊkəˌnɪzəm) /


noun
  1. the practice of making only a token effort or doing no more than the minimum, esp in order to comply with a law

Derived forms of tokenism

  • tokenistic, adjective

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