A plastic card that contains a small computer chip. It may be contactless (RF), may have a visible computer chip (contacts), a magnetic stripe and/or a bar-code, to electronically store and process credentials. It may also have a photo on it and/or in it,and other printed information on it. It may be used for personal identification, physical access to facilities such as buildings and/or logical access to applications. The inclusion of all three aspects (ID, physical and logical access) in the one token is a convenience for issuing and management, but it is an inconvenience to the Identity if lost or misplaced and thus it may represent a greater overall security risk.

Source: http://identityaccessman.blogspot.com/2006/08/identity-dictionary.html