type-token ratio

noun

The ratio of the number of different words (types) occurring in a text or corpus to the overall number of words (tokens) in the same text or corpus.

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Meanings

nountype-token ratio (plural type-token ratios)

plural type-token ratios · alternative TTR

  1. corpus linguisticsThe ratio of the number of different words (types) occurring in a text or corpus to the overall number of words (tokens) in the same text or corpus.
    1 more example

    We identify vocabulary richness by using a well-established measure of textual, lexical diversity (MTLD) which is often used in the field of automated essay grading. It takes into account the number of unique words but unlike the best-known measure of lexical diversity, the type-token ratio (TTR), it is not as sensitive to the difference in the length of the texts.

    2023 October 30, Herbold et al., “A large-scale comparison of human-written versus ChatGPT-generated essays”, in Scientific Reports, volume 13, page 5
Cite this entry
APA

type-token ratio. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/type-token%20ratio

MLA

“type-token ratio.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/type-token%20ratio. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “type-token ratio,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/type-token%20ratio.

Source: type-token ratio on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.