Definitions
1.nounAn object designed to open and close a lock.
2.nounAn object designed to fit between two other objects (such as a shaft and a wheel) in a mechanism and maintain their relative orientation.
3.nounA crucial step or requirement."The key to solving this problem is persistence."
4.nounA guide explaining the symbols or terminology of a map or chart; a legend."The key says that A stands for the accounting department."
5.nounA guide to the correct answers of a worksheet or test."Some students cheated by using the answer key."
6.nounOne of several small, usually square buttons on a typewriter or computer keyboard, mostly corresponding to text characters."Press the Escape key."
7.nounIn musical instruments, one of the valve levers used to select notes, such as a lever opening a hole on a woodwind.
8.nounIn 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.nounThe lowest note of a scale; keynote.
10.nounIn musical theory, the total melodic and harmonic relations, which exist between the tones of an ideal scale, major or minor; tonality.
11.nounIn musical theory and notation, the tonality centering in a given tone, or the several tones taken collectively, of a given scale, major or minor.
12.nounIn musical notation, a sign at the head of a staff indicating the musical key.
13.nounThe general pitch or tone of a sentence or utterance.
14.nounA modification of an advertisement so as to target a particular group or demographic.
15.nounAn indehiscent, one-seeded fruit furnished with a wing, such as the fruit of the ash and maple; a samara.
16.nounA manual electrical switching device primarily used for the transmission of Morse code.
17.nounA piece of information (e.g. a passphrase) used to encode or decode a message or messages.
18.nounA password restricting access to an IRC channel.
19.nounIn a relational database, a field used as an index into another table (not necessarily unique).
20.nounA value that uniquely identifies an entry in a container.
21.nounThe free-throw lane together with the circle surrounding the free-throw line, the free-throw lane having formerly been narrower, giving the area the shape of a skeleton key hole."He shoots from the top of the key."
22.nounA series of logically organized groups of discriminating information which aims to allow the user to correctly identify a taxon.
23.nounA piece of wood used as a wedge.
24.nounThe last board of a floor when laid down.
25.nounA keystone.
26.nounThat part of the plastering which is forced through between the laths and holds the rest in place.
27.nounA wooden support for a rail on the bullhead rail system.
28.nounThe degree of roughness, or retention ability of a surface to have applied a liquid such as paint, or glue."The door panel should be sanded down carefully to provide a good key for the new paint."
29.nounThe thirty-third card of the Lenormand deck.
30.noun(print and film) The black ink layer, especially in relation to the three color layers of cyan, magenta, and yellow. See also CMYK.
31.nounA color to be masked or made transparent.
32.verbTo fit (a lock) with a key.
33.verbTo fit (pieces of a mechanical assembly) with a key to maintain the orientation between them.
34.verbTo mark or indicate with a symbol indicating membership in a class.
35.verb(telegraphy and radio telegraphy) To depress (a telegraph key).
36.verbTo operate (the transmitter switch of a two-way radio).
37.verb(more usually to key in) To enter (information) by typing on a keyboard or keypad."Our instructor told us to key in our user IDs."
38.verbTo vandalize (a car, etc.) by scratching with an implement such as a key."He keyed the car that had taken his parking spot."
39.verbTo link (as one might do with a key or legend).
40.verbTo be identified as a certain taxon when using a key.
41.verbTo modify (an advertisement) so as to target a particular group or demographic.
42.verbTo attune to; to set at; to pitch.
43.verbTo fasten or secure firmly; to fasten or tighten with keys or wedges.
44.adjectiveIndispensable, supremely important."He is the key player on his soccer team."
45.adjectiveImportant, salient."She makes several key points."