Key vs. Keycard

Keynoun

An object designed to open and close a lock.

Keycardnoun

A usually plastic card which stores a digital signature that is used to operate an electronic access control lock.

Keynoun

An object designed to fit between two other objects (such as a shaft and a wheel) in a mechanism and maintain their relative orientation.

Keycardnoun

a plastic card that has a magnetically coded strip that is scanned in order to operate a mechanism

Keynoun

A crucial step or requirement.

‘The key to solving this problem is persistence.’; ‘the key to winning a game’;

Keynoun

A guide explaining the symbols or terminology of a map or chart; a legend.

‘The key says that A stands for the accounting department.’;

Keynoun

A guide to the correct answers of a worksheet or test.

‘Some students cheated by using the answer key.’;

Keynoun

(computing) One of several small, usually square buttons on a typewriter or computer keyboard, mostly corresponding to text characters.

‘Press the Escape key.’;

Keynoun

(music) One of a number of rectangular moving parts on a piano or musical keyboard, each causing a particular sound or note to be produced.

Keynoun

(music) One of various levers on a musical instrument used to select notes, such as a lever opening a hole on a woodwind.

Keynoun

(music) A hierarchical scale of musical notes on which a composition is based.

‘the key of B-flat major’;

Keynoun

(figurative) The general pitch or tone of a sentence or utterance.

Keynoun

(botany) An indehiscent, one-seeded fruit furnished with a wing, such as the fruit of the ash and maple; a samara.

Keynoun

(historical) A manual electrical switching device primarily used for the transmission of Morse code.

Keynoun

(cryptography) A piece of information (e.g. a passphrase) used to encode or decode a message or messages.

Keynoun

(internet) A password restricting access to an IRC channel.

Keynoun

(databases) In a relational database, a field used as an index into another table (not necessarily unique).

Keynoun

(computing) A value that uniquely identifies an entry in a container.

Keynoun

(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.

‘He shoots from the top of the key.’;

Keynoun

(biology) A series of logically organized groups of discriminating information which aims to allow the user to correctly identify a taxon.

Keynoun

(architecture) A piece of wood used as a wedge.

Keynoun

(architecture) The last board of a floor when laid down.

Keynoun

(masonry) A keystone.

Keynoun

That part of the plastering which is forced through between the laths and holds the rest in place.

Keynoun

(rail transport) A wooden support for a rail on the bullhead rail system.

Keynoun

The 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.’;

Keynoun

(cartomancy) The thirty-third card of the Lenormand deck.

Keynoun

(print and film) The black ink layer, especially in relation to the three color layers of cyan, magenta, and yellow. See also CMYK.

Keynoun

A color to be masked or made transparent.

Keynoun

.NET 2003 Developer's Cookbook (page 195)

Keynoun

One of a string of small islands.

‘the Florida Keys’;

Keynoun

(slang) nodot=1 though this is more commonly shortened to kay.

Keyadjective

Indispensable, supremely important.

‘He is the key player on his soccer team.’;

Keyadjective

Important, salient.

‘She makes several key points.’;

Keyverb

To fit (a lock) with a key.

Keyverb

To fit (pieces of a mechanical assembly) with a key to maintain the orientation between them.

Keyverb

To mark or indicate with a symbol indicating membership in a class.

Keyverb

(telegraphy and radio telegraphy) To depress (a telegraph key).

Keyverb

(radio) To operate (the transmitter switch of a two-way radio).

Keyverb

(computing) (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.’;

Keyverb

(colloquial) To vandalize (a car, etc.) by scratching with an implement such as a key.

‘He keyed the car that had taken his parking spot.’;

Keyverb

To link (as one might do with a key or legend).

Keyverb

To be identified as a certain taxon when using a key.

Keyverb

To fasten or secure firmly; to fasten or tighten with keys or wedges.

Keynoun

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.

Keynoun

A small device which is inserted into a mechanism and turned like a key to fasten, adjust, or wind it; as, a watch key; a bed key; the winding key for a clock, etc.

Keynoun

One of a set of small movable parts on an instrument or machine which, by being depressed, serves as the means of operating it; the complete set of keys is usually called the keyboard; as, the keys of a piano, an organ, an accordion, a computer keyboard, or of a typewriter. The keys may operate parts of the instrument by a mechanical action, as on a piano, or by closing an electrical circuit, as on a computer keyboard. See also senses 12 and 13.

Keynoun

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.

‘Those who are accustomed to reason have got the true key of books.’; ‘Who keeps the keys of all the creeds.’;

Keynoun

That part of a mechanism which serves to lock up, make fast, or adjust to position.

Keynoun

A piece of wood used as a wedge.

Keynoun

A keystone.

Keynoun

A wedge to unite two or more pieces, or adjust their relative position; a cotter; a forelock.

Keynoun

An indehiscent, one-seeded fruit furnished with a wing, as the fruit of the ash and maple; a samara; - called also key fruit.

Keynoun

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.

‘Both warbling of one song, both in one key.’;

Keynoun

Fig: The general pitch or tone of a sentence or utterance.

‘You fall at once into a lower key.’;

Keynoun

A metallic lever by which the circuit of the sending or transmitting part of a station equipment may be easily and rapidly opened and closed; as, a telegraph key.

Keynoun

any device for closing or opening an electric circuit, especially as part of a keyboard, as that used at a computer terminal or teletype terminal.

Keynoun

A simplified version or analysis which accompanies something as a clue to its explanation, a book or table containing the solutions to problems, ciphers, allegories, or the like;

Keynoun

A word or other combination of symbols which serves as an index identifying and pointing to a particular record, file, or location which can be retrieved and displayed by a computer program; as, a database using multi-word keys. When the key is a word, it is also called a keyword.

Keyverb

To fasten or secure firmly; to fasten or tighten with keys or wedges.

Keyverb

To enter (text, data) using keys, especially those on a keyboard; to keyboard; as, to key the data in by hand.

Keyverb

To adjust so as to be maximally effective in a particular situation; - of actions, plans, or speech; as, to key one's campaign speech to each local audience.

Keyverb

To furnish with a key or keys.

Keyadjective

Essential; most important; as, the key fact in the inquiry; the president was the key player inthe negotiations.

Keynoun

metal device shaped in such a way that when it is inserted into the appropriate lock the lock's mechanism can be rotated

Keynoun

something crucial for explaining;

‘the key to development is economic integration’;

Keynoun

pitch of the voice;

‘he spoke in a low key’;

Keynoun

any of 24 major or minor diatonic scales that provide the tonal framework for a piece of music

Keynoun

a kilogram of a narcotic drug;

‘they were carrying two keys of heroin’;

Keynoun

a winged often one-seed indehiscent fruit as of the ash or elm or maple

Keynoun

United States lawyer and poet who wrote a poem after witnessing the British attack on Baltimore during the War of 1812; the poem was later set to music and entitled `The Star-Spangled Banner' (1779-1843)

Keynoun

a coral reef off the southern coast of Florida

Keynoun

(basketball) a space (including the foul line) in front of the basket at each end of a basketball court; usually painted a different color from the rest of the court;

‘he hit a jump shot from the top of the key’; ‘he dominates play in the paint’;

Keynoun

a list of answers to a test;

‘some students had stolen the key to the final exam’;

Keynoun

a list of words or phrases that explain symbols or abbreviations

Keynoun

a generic term for any device whose possession entitles the holder to a means of access;

‘a safe-deposit box usually requires two keys to open it’;

Keynoun

mechanical device used to wind another device that is driven by a spring (as a clock)

Keynoun

the central building block at the top of an arch or vault

Keynoun

a lever that actuates a mechanism when depressed

Keyverb

identify as in botany or biology, for example

Keyverb

provide with a key;

‘We were keyed after the locks were changed in the building’;

Keyverb

vandalize a car by scratching the sides with a key;

‘His new Mercedes was keyed last night in the parking lot’;

Keyverb

regulate the musical pitch of

Keyverb

harmonize with or adjust to;

‘key one's actions to the voters' prevailing attitude’;

Keyadjective

serving as an essential component;

‘a cardinal rule’; ‘the central cause of the problem’; ‘an example that was fundamental to the argument’; ‘computers are fundamental to modern industrial structure’;

Keyadjective

effective; producing a desired effect;

‘the operative word’;