O Bash está usando a mesma terminologia do POSIX (sem surpresa). Use isso para comparação (e ocasionalmente esclarecimento).
Citações de Definições
3.113 Control Operator
In the shell command language, a token that performs a control function. It is one of the following symbols:
& && ( ) ; ;; newline | ||
The end-of-input indicator used internally by the shell is also considered a control operator.
Note: Token Recognition is defined in detail in XCU Token Recognition .
3.407 Token
In the shell command language, a sequence of characters that the shell considers as a single unit when reading input. A token is either an operator or a word.
Note: The rules for reading input are defined in detail in XCU Token Recognition.
3.440 Word
In the shell command language, a token other than an operator. In some cases a word is also a portion of a word token: in the various forms of parameter expansion, such as ${name-word}, and variable assignment, such as name=word, the word is the portion of the token depicted by word. The concept of a word is no longer applicable following word expansions-only fields remain.
Note: For further information, see XCU Parameter Expansion and wordexp.
Então você vê, há uma distinção entre "palavra" e "token", e que eles não são sinônimos como implícitos na questão. Além disso, o padrão não considera os dois pontos-e-vírgulas como caracteres separados, mas uma unidade única .