key

An object designed to open and close a lock.

Adjective

  1. Indispensable, supremely important.
    • He is the key player on his soccer team.
    • Paradoxically enough, however, in general only the parties of the Left have done most to spread the belief that it was the numerical strength of the opposing material interests which decided political issues, whereas in...
    • Lukas intimates that one of Disney's key attractions was "Main Street USA,” which "mimicked a downtown business district just as Southdale" had done. - 2007, Mark H. Moss, Shopping as an Entertainment Experience, page...
  2. Important, salient.
    • She makes several key points.
    • Throughout the 1500s, the populace roiled over a constellation of grievances of which the forest emerged as a key focal point. The popular late Middle Ages fictional character Robin Hood, dressed in green to symbolize...
    • With the north London derby to come at the weekend, Spurs boss Harry Redknapp opted to rest many of his key players, although he brought back Aaron Lennon after a month out through injury. - 2011 September 29, Jon...

Origin

From Middle English keye, kaye, keiȝe, from Old English cǣġ (“key, solution, experiment”) (whence also Scots key and kay (“key”)), from Anglo-Frisian Proto-West Germanic *kaiju, of uncertain origin. The only sure cognates are Saterland Frisian Koai (“key”), West Frisian kaai (“key”), and North Frisian kai, koie (“key”). Possibly from Proto-Germanic *kēgaz, *kēguz (“stake, post, pole”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵogʰ-, *ǵegʰ-, *ǵegʰn- (“branch, stake, bush”), which would make it cognate with Middle Low German kāk (“whipping post, pillory”), and perhaps to Middle Dutch keige (“javelin, spear”) and Middle Low German keie, keige (“spear”). For the semantic development, note that medieval keys were simply long poles (ending in a hook) with which a crossbar obstructing a door from the inside could be removed from the outside, by lifting it through a hole in the door. Liberman has noted,...

Forms

keyer more key keyest most key

Noun Entry 2

  1. An object designed to open and close a lock.
    • We tiptoed into the house, up the stairs and along the hall into the room where the Professor had been spending so much of his time. 'Twas locked, of course, but the Deacon man got a big bunch of keys out of his pocket...
  2. An object designed to fit between two other objects (such as a shaft and a wheel) in a mechanism and maintain their relative orientation.

    Hypernyms: part component

    Coordinate Terms: spline feather

    Related: keyway keyseat

  3. A crucial step or requirement.
    • The key to solving this problem is persistence.
    • the key to winning a game
    • Those who are accustomed to reason have got the true key of books. - a. 1705, John Locke, “Of the Conduct of the Understanding”, in Posthumous Works of Mr. John Locke: […], London: […] A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill,...
  4. A small guide explaining symbols or terminology, especially the legend on a map or chart.
    • The key says that A stands for the accounting department.
  5. A guide to the correct answers of a worksheet or test.
    • Some students cheated by using the answer key.
  6. One of several small, usually square buttons on a typewriter or computer keyboard, mostly corresponding to text characters.
    • Press the Escape key.
  7. In musical instruments, one of the valve levers used to select notes, such as a lever opening a hole on a woodwind.
  8. In instruments with a keyboard such as an organ or piano, one of the levers, or especially the exposed front end of it, which are depressed to cause a particular sound or note to be produced.
  9. A scale or group of pitches constituting the basis of a musical composition.
    • the key of B-flat major
    • A girl, it is true, has always lived in a glass house among reproving relatives, whose word was law; she has been bred up to sacrifice her judgments and take the key submissively from dear papa; and it is wonderful how...

    1. The lowest note of a scale; keynote.

    2. In musical theory, the total melodic and harmonic relations, which exist between the tones of an ideal scale, major or minor; tonality.

    3. In musical theory and notation, the tonality centering in a given tone, or the several tones taken collectively, of a given scale, major or minor.

    4. In musical notation, a sign at the head of a staff indicating the musical key.

  10. The general pitch or tone of a sentence or utterance.
    • 2. Queen.[…]Deere Glasse of Ladies Bid him that we whom flaming war doth scortch, Vnder the shaddow of his Sword, may coole us: Require him he advance it ore our heades; Speak't in a womans key: like such a woman As any...
    • ?, William Cowper, Conversation You fall at once into a lower key.
  11. A modification of an advertisement so as to target a particular group or demographic.
    • Another popular way to key ads and mailings is to use a suite number, room number, department number, desk number, etc. as part of the ordering address. With a classified ad, using such a key may increase your ad cost....
  12. An indehiscent, one-seeded fruit furnished with a wing, such as the fruit of the ash and maple; a samara.

Forms

keys

Hyponyms

candidate key card key church key database key Escape key Esc key foreign key keyphrase keyword major key minor key Morse key passcode passphrase password primary key silent key skeleton key unique key

Related

key card key chain key change key fob key ring key signature public-key cryptography clef scale Key in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Derived

accelerator key a golden key can open any door Allen key alt key answer key arrow key autokey barrel key bedkey bis key boss key bump key business key card key car key CD key change key check key Chinese keys chroma-key chroma key chuck key clustering key Command key

Noun Entry 3

  1. One of a string of small islands.
    • the Florida Keys

Origin

Variant of cay, from Spanish cayo, from Taíno cayo (“small island”)

Forms

keys cay

Derived

Florida Keys key deer Key West Long Key

Noun slang

  1. A kilogram, especially of a recreational drug.
    • So starting with ten keys of cocaine and two keys of heroin, Derrick put his plan in motion. Soon every major drug dealer and gang chief from Chicago Avenue to Evanston was in his pocket. - 2010, David J. Silas, Da...

    Synonyms: kay

Origin

Clipping of kilogram or kilo.

Forms

keys ki keye kee

Noun alt of, alternative

  1. Alternative form of quay.

Forms

keys

Verb

  1. To fit (a lock) with a key.
  2. To fit (pieces of a mechanical assembly) with a key to maintain the orientation between them.
  3. To mark or indicate with a symbol indicating membership in a class.
    • So I worked on a tissue-paper copy of the perimeter plan, outlining groupings of plants of the same species and keying them with letters for the species. - 1996 January, Garden Dsign Ideas, second printing, Taunton...
    • The volume closes with thirty pages of "Notes, critical and explanatory," in which Thomson provides seventy-six longer or shorter notes keyed to specific sections of the synopsis. - 2001, Bruce M. Metzger, The Bible in...
    • Talk about similarities between the words and write them below to the left of the anchor, keying them with a plus sign (+). Talk about the characteristics that set the words apart and list them below the box to the...
  4. To depress (a telegraph key).
  5. To operate (the transmitter switch of a two-way radio).
  6. To enter (information) by typing on a keyboard or keypad.
    • Our instructor told us to key in our user IDs.
  7. To vandalize (a car, etc.) by scratching with an implement such as a key.
    • He keyed the car that had taken his parking spot.
  8. To link (as one might do with a key or legend).
    • The American Heart Association has prepared their own guide to classification and, keying it with the Standard Nomenclature of Diseases, have done much to encourage a concise yet complete diagnosis. - 1960, Richard L....
    • The workman's compensation system rests on incentives (premium payments) that are keyed to the immediate and relatively undeniable nature of injuries; […] - 1976, Nicholas Askounes Ashford, Crisis in the Workplace:...
    • It also features special issues on "Live Longer, Better, Wiser," men's health, women's health, and issues keyed to important "disease weeks." - 2006, Deborah Blum, Mary Knudson, Robin Marantz Henig, A Field Guide for...
  9. To be identified as a certain taxon when using a key.
  10. To modify (an advertisement) so as to target a particular group or demographic.
    • Keying advertisements and counting the number of inquiries received or the number of coupons returned to indicate the "pulling power" of a particular piece of copy or the coverage of a particular advertising medium. -...
    • Another popular way to key ads and mailings is to use a suite number, room number, department number, desk number, etc. as part of the ordering address. With a classified ad, using such a key may increase your ad cost....
  11. To attune to; to set at; to pitch.
    • To Ethel alone she addressed a stray remark, keyed below the sound of other voices. - 1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, →OCLC, page 23:
  12. To fasten or secure firmly; to fasten or tighten with keys or wedges.
    • they Mouldered and keyed the Portico Arches with Pieces of Stone, because Brick was not strong enough - 1744, Roger North, The Life of the Honourable Sir Dudley North:

Forms

keys keying keyed

Derived

keyed up key in key in on key off key on key out