key

/kiː/ · noun

Meaning

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.
One of several small, usually square buttons on a typewriter or computer keyboard, mostly corresponding to text characters.
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).
To operate (the transmitter switch of a two-way radio).
(more usually to key in) To enter (information) by typing on a keyboard or keypad.
Indispensable, supremely important.
Important, salient.
One of a string of small islands.
A stone or concrete structure on navigable water used for loading and unloading vessels; a wharf.
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
The unit of weight such that a one-kilogram mass is also a one-kilogram weight.

No prose etymology has been added yet.

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