type-token distinction
type-token distinction noun: the distinction between a type of something and an instance of it, such as city and capital city (type of city) versus city and Paris (instance of a city). (It is the difference between (1) hypernym and hyponym and (2) class and instance.).
Noun
type-token distinction (plural type-token distinctions)
- The distinction between a type of something and an instance of it, such as city and capital city (type of city) versus city and Paris (instance of a city). (It is the difference between (1) hypernym and hyponym and (2) class and instance.)
- Without the type-token distinction being made, some silly thinking can slip through.
- An instance of this distinction being made.
- They're making several type-token distinctions in this paragraph.
Forms of type-token distinction
| plural | type-token distinctions |
|---|
Questions about type-token distinction
- What does type-token distinction mean?
- Type-token distinction means the distinction between a type of something and an instance of it, such as city and capital city (type of city) versus city and Paris (instance of a city). (It is the difference between (1) hypernym and hyponym and (2) class and instance.).
- What part of speech is type-token distinction?
- Type-token distinction is a noun.
- What is the plural of type-token distinction?
- The plural of type-token distinction is type-token distinctions.
Words near type-token distinction in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: type-token distinction (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “type-token distinction.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/type-token_distinction. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.