Dictionary

tokenistic en · ADJ

Etymology

From token + -istic.

Meanings

1. Serving as a token of support, compliance, etc., but lacking substance; exhibiting or relating to tokenism.
   • As Jonathan Bartley said in The Independent on January 20, it makes Johnson's £12bn ten-point plan look "tokenistic by comparison". 2021 January 27, Stefanie Foster, quoting Jonathan Bartley, “Comment: Rail crucial to green success”, in RAIL, issue 923, page 3:
   • The company’s use of ads depicting gay couples appears to be merely tokenistic, particularly in view of the support it has given to anti-LGBT politicians.
   • ‘You can't say “coloured”. And it's not the word “black” either,’ says Sarah's partner, Ross. ‘It's that it's tokenistic to say “invite your black friends”.’ 2017, Jamie Bartlett, chapter 6, in Radicals, William Heinemann, →ISBN:
   • The government has taken nothing more than tokenistic actions on behalf of people with disabilities.
   • More than 300 academics and students have criticised universities for their “tokenistic and superficial” support for the Black Lives Matter movement given their poor record on tackling institutional racism. 2020 July 6, David Batty, “Universities criticised for ‘tokenistic’ support for Black Lives Matter”, in The Guardian:
   • But what is not needed is a tokenistic gesture to place a woman, any woman, in the role, irrespective of her politics. 2014 April 14, Lola Okolosie, “We need a women's minister with clout, not another tokenistic exercise”, in The Guardian:
2. (obsolete) Constituting a token or symbol.
   • 1908, T. W. Pearce, “The Ancient Faiths of the Chinese” in Arnold Wright (ed.), Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China, London: Lloyd’s Greater Britain Publishing Company, p. 340, Animals are tokens. Among tokenistic animals the dragon holds the first place. The dragon of the sky is indissolubly linked in the minds of the masses with the emperor who sits on the dragon throne, and who, after death, ascends upon the dragon “to be a guest on high.”

Forms

Deriveds

tokenistically

Relateds

window dressing · tokenism · cosmetic · superficial

Synonyms

symbolic