meaning of key

1. An instrument by means of which the bolt of a lock is shot or drawn; usually, a removable metal instrument fitted to the mechanism of a particular lock and operated by turning in its place.
2. An instrument which is turned like a key in fastening or adjusting any mechanism; as, a watch key; a bed key, etc.
3. That part of an instrument or machine which serves as the means of operating it; as, a telegraph key; the keys of a pianoforte, or of a typewriter.
4. A position or condition which affords entrance, control, pr possession, etc. ; as, the key of a line of defense; the key of a country; the key of a political situation. Hence, that which serves to unlock, open, discover, or solve something unknown or difficult; as, the key to a riddle; the key to a problem.
5. That part of a mechanism which serves to lock up, make fast, or adjust to position.
6. A piece of wood used as a wedge.
7. The last board of a floor when laid down.
8. A keystone.
9. That part of the plastering which is forced through between the laths and holds the rest in place.
10. A wedge to unite two or more pieces, or adjust their relative position; a cotter; a forelock.
11. A bar, pin or wedge, to secure a crank, pulley, coupling, etc. , upon a shaft, and prevent relative turning; sometimes holding by friction alone, but more frequently by its resistance to shearing, being usually embedded partly in the shaft and partly in the crank, pulley, etc.
12. An indehiscent, one-seeded fruit furnished with a wing, as the fruit of the ash and maple; a samara; -- called also key fruit.
13. A family of tones whose regular members are called diatonic tones, and named key tone (or tonic) or one (or eight), mediant or three, dominant or five, subdominant or four, submediant or six, supertonic or two, and subtonic or seven. Chromatic tones are temporary members of a key, under such names as " sharp four," "flat seven," etc. Scales and tunes of every variety are made from the tones of a key.
14. The fundamental tone of a movement to which its modulations are referred, and with which it generally begins and ends; keynote.
15. Fig: The general pitch or tone of a sentence or utterance.
16. To fasten or secure firmly; to fasten or tighten with keys or wedges.
17. See Keynote.
18. key 1. A value used to identify a record in a database, derived by applying some fixed function to the record. The key is often simply one of the fields a column if the database is considered as a table with records being rows, see "key field". Alternatively the key may be obtained by applying some function, e. g. a hash function, to one or more of the fields. The set of keys for all records forms an index. Multiple indexes may be built for one database depending on how it is to be searched. 2. A value which must be fed into the algorithm used to decode an encrypted message in order to reproduce the original plain text. Some encryption schemes use the same secret key to encrypt and decrypt a message, but public key encryption uses a "private" secret key and a "public" key which is known by all parties. 3. An electromechanical keyboard button.
19. metal device shaped in such a way that when it is inserted into the appropriate lock the locks mechanism can be rotated

Related Words

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