key
IPA: kˈi
noun
- An object designed to open and close a lock.
- An object designed to fit between two other objects (such as a shaft and a wheel) in a mechanism and maintain their relative orientation.
- A crucial step or requirement.
- A guide explaining the symbols or terminology of a map or chart; a legend.
- A guide to the correct answers of a worksheet or test.
- (computing) One of several small, usually square buttons on a typewriter or computer keyboard, mostly corresponding to text characters.
- (music)
- In musical instruments, one of the valve levers used to select notes, such as a lever opening a hole on a woodwind.
- 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.
- (music) A scale or group of pitches constituting the basis of a musical composition.
- The lowest note of a scale; keynote.
- In musical theory, the total melodic and harmonic relations, which exist between the tones of an ideal scale, major or minor; tonality.
- 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.
- In musical notation, a sign at the head of a staff indicating the musical key.
- (figurative) The general pitch or tone of a sentence or utterance.
- (advertising) A modification of an advertisement so as to target a particular group or demographic.
- (botany) An indehiscent, one-seeded fruit furnished with a wing, such as the fruit of the ash and maple; a samara.
- (historical) A manual electrical switching device primarily used for the transmission of Morse code.
- (cryptography) A piece of information (e.g., a password or passphrase) used to encode or decode a message or messages.
- (Internet) A password restricting access to an IRC channel.
- (databases) In a relational database, a field used as an index into another table (not necessarily unique).
- (computing) A value that uniquely identifies an entry in a container.
- (basketball) The 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.
- (biology) A series of logically organized groups of discriminating information which aims to allow the user to correctly identify a taxon.
- (architecture) A piece of wood used as a wedge.
- (architecture) The last board of a floor when laid down.
- (masonry) A keystone.
- That part of the plastering which is forced through between the laths and holds the rest in place.
- (rail transport) A wooden support for a rail on the bullhead rail system.
- The degree of roughness, or retention ability of a surface to have applied a liquid such as paint, or glue.
- (cartomancy) The thirty-third card of the Lenormand deck.
- (print and film) The black ink layer, especially in relation to the three color layers of cyan, magenta, and yellow. See also CMYK.
- (computer graphics, television) A color to be masked or made transparent.
- One of a string of small islands.
- A surname.
- Alternative form of quay. [(nautical) A stone or concrete structure on navigable water used for loading and unloading vessels; a wharf.]
- (slang) Clipping of kilogram (especially of a recreational drug) [In the International System of Units, the base unit of mass; conceived of as the mass of one litre of water, but now defined by taking the fixed numerical value of the Planck constant h to be 6.626 070 15 × 10⁻³⁴ when expressed in units of kg⋅m²⋅s⁻¹. Symbol: kg]
verb
- To fit (a lock) with a key.
- To fit (pieces of a mechanical assembly) with a key to maintain the orientation between them.
- To mark or indicate with a symbol indicating membership in a class.
- (telegraphy and radio telegraphy) To depress (a telegraph key).
- (radio) To operate (the transmitter switch of a two-way radio).
- (computing) (more usually to key in) To enter (information) by typing on a keyboard or keypad.
- (colloquial) To vandalize (a car, etc.) by scratching with an implement such as a key.
- To link (as one might do with a key or legend).
- (intransitive, biology, chiefly taxonomy) To be identified as a certain taxon when using a key.
- (advertising, transitive) To modify (an advertisement) so as to target a particular group or demographic.
- To attune to; to set at; to pitch.
- To fasten or secure firmly; to fasten or tighten with keys or wedges.
- To prepare for plastering by adding the key (that part of the plastering which is forced through between the laths and holds the rest in place).
- To provide an arch with a keystone.
adjective
- Indispensable, supremely important.
- Important, salient.
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Examples of "key" in Sentences
- The key to this is stratigraphy.
- The provenance of this is the key.
- Logic and perseverance is the key.
- Passwords are the keys to cyberspace.
- The keys on the keypad acted as function keys.
- KeyWait % key%, T%tout%; Wait for key to be released.
- All along, the piece has been so jubilant, and in major keys.
- The exposition starts in the tonic key and ends in the dominant key.
- The key size is the binary logarithm of the number of possible keys.
- It is the major work of a key figure in the history of psychotherapy.
- Perhaps the most important, and the key, to the series was the narration.
- My eye caught sight of the great key, _Pakenham's key_, lying there on the table.
- _The key to the proper control of China and the building-up of the new Republican State is the railway key_ ....
- Get the list of values for a particular key on the current post. get_post_meta ($post_id, $key, $single = false)
- GetKeyState, state, % key%, P; stores the state of the key to variable 'state' if state = U; The key has been released, so break out of the loop.
- Say that I made bold to assert that you did not possess the key that would unlock the sacred places of her heart; and you may add further, that I say the _key is held by another_.
- The one that fits the bill is memcache_add () which, if a key is already added returns a failure condition. locked_mecache_update ($memcache, $key, $updateFunction, $expiryTime, $waitUTime, $maxTries) * A function to do ensure only one thing can update a memcache at a time.
- A:: loop if checkkeyreleased (A_thishotkey); break; presskey ( "z"); return presskey (key, del1 = 999999, del2 = 999999); global delaybetweenfkeys, fkeydowndelay del1: = del1 = 999999? fkeydowndelay: del1; del2: = del2 = 999999? delaybetweenfkeys: del2; sendinput {% key% down}; sleep % del1%; sendinput {% key% up}; sleep % del2%; checkkeyreleased (key, checkdelay = 2)