key
(kiː )
Word forms: keys , keying , keyed
1. countable noun A2
A key is a specially shaped piece of metal that you place in a lock and turn in order to open or lock a door, or to start or stop the engine of a vehicle.
They put the key in the door and entered. [+ in]
She reached for her coat and car keys.
Synonyms: opener, door key, latchkey
2. countable noun [usually plural] B2
The keys on a computer keyboard or typewriter are the buttons that you press in order to operate it.
3. countable noun [usually plural]
The keys of a piano or organ are the long narrow pieces of wood or plastic that you press in order to play it.
4. variable noun
In music, a key is a scale of musical notes that starts on one specific note.
...the key of A minor. [+ of]
Synonyms: tone, sound, pitch, timbre
5. countable noun
The key on a map or diagram or in a technical book is a list of the symbols or abbreviations used and their meanings.
You will find a key at the front of the book.
Synonyms: guide, explanation, interpretation, indicator
6. adjective [ADJECTIVE noun]
The key person or thing in a group is the most important one.
He is expected to be the key witness at the trial.
Education is likely to be a key issue in the next election.
7. countable noun
The key to a desirable situation or result is the way in which it can be achieved.
The key to success is to be ready from the start. [+ to]
Diet and relaxation are two important keys to good health.
Synonyms: answer, means, secret, solution
8. See also master key
9. under lock and key phrase [PHRASE after verb]
If something or someone is kept under lock and key, they are in a container or room which has been securely locked.
The books were normally kept under lock and key in the library vault.
He is currently under lock and key at Eastmoor secure unit in Leeds.
Phrasal verbs:
key in
phrasal verb [Also VERB noun PARTICLE]
If you key something in, you put information into a computer or you give the computer a particular instruction by typing the information or instruction on the keyboard.
Brian keyed in his personal code. [VERB PARTICLE noun]
Image of key
© 24/04/2018, Shutterstock
Collocations:
computer keys key engine key leader key member key phrase key planning key position key principle key question key recommendation key role key stakeholder key strategy key supplier key suspect key tenet of key to success key turning point key votes key witness keyboard key locker key lost key piano key press a key spare key throw away the key turn a key typewriter key
They were told to press the computer keys to increase or decrease the amount of time they wanted to look at each of the faces presented to them.
Times, Sunday Times
I heard the click of the computer keys.
Times, Sunday Times
Using three computer keys, they had to raise the value as high as possible.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Indeed, it was a key engine of this belief.
The Times Literary Supplement
The changes were part of a wider programme of reform needed to expand the higher education sector, seen as a key engine of growth in today's knowledge-based economy.
Times, Sunday Times
A confidence in the value of research, of seeing things as they are and trying to discern the pattern therein remain key engines of her writing.
The Times Literary Supplement
Move on to vision sharing led by a pastor or key leader.
Christianity Today
But on the last day he asked to be acquitted, claiming that he was not a key leader.
Times, Sunday Times
Once we've found the key leader, we assemble a think tank, five or six individuals who begin to brainstorm about the ministry.
Christianity Today
A key leader offered me words of wisdom about the people of that community.
Christianity Today
Involve every staff member and key leader in your funding plan.
Christianity Today
He became a key member of several central committees.
Times, Sunday Times
Find yourself invested in the ongoing narrative of a group who have lost a key member and you instinctively will them to rally.
Times, Sunday Times
And yet sin had snared a key member of my congregation.
Christianity Today
You are a key member of family and friendship groups, mixing fairness and firmness equally while refusing to let the past dictate the future.
The Sun
It did not look the most inspiring switch at the time but the 28-yearold has become a key member of the squad.
The Sun
The key phrase in article 8(2) was that whatever a candidate relied on it should be 'equivalent to a certificate of completion of training'.
Times, Sunday Times
In a competition for the key phrase of 2020, coronavirus-related terms hold the top spots.
Times,Sunday Times
Try to remember the key phrase: 'the right school'.
Times, Sunday Times
The omission of the key phrase, along with passages that differed widely from the speech.
Times, Sunday Times
She says she focuses on one key phrase during each 'tumble', memory boosters such as 'strong' and 'stand up', and her size has morphed into an advantage.
Times, Sunday Times
These are the key planning tools for most yards as they plot their horses' campaigns.
Times, Sunday Times
The government's new pro-development planning rules, still only in draft, were singled out by officials as a key planning consideration.
Times, Sunday Times
He attended most of the key planning meetings for the blast, and helped secure the safe houses and the vehicle used.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Photojournalism occupies a key position and gives the show a documentary feel.
Times, Sunday Times
The shadow chancellorship will nevertheless be the key position to fill.
Times, Sunday Times
But he was then only 19, preposterously young to be bossing around illustrious players in the key position in the hardest league.
Times, Sunday Times
You should always be considering the next person in line for any key position.
Christianity Today
The commission was for a dramatic, three-dimensional, 16ft by 26ft wallhanging for a key position against a huge concrete wall in the middle of the new cultural centre's entrance hall.
Times, Sunday Times
We have no engagement with the neighbours either, another key principle of post-conflict stabilisation that we have chosen to ignore.
Times, Sunday Times
One key principle was that education authorities (non-metropolitan counties and metropolitan districts), were deemed to need a population base of 250,000 in order to be viable.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
I believe that, for both public and private sectors, simplicity and universality are key principles on which success will be founded.
Times, Sunday Times
Instead, the coalition established some key principles — austerity combined with loose monetary policy being the centrepiece — and the authorities then thought on their feet.
Times, Sunday Times
Follow our recipes or devise your own, sticking to the key principles below and the 10 rules for life.
Times, Sunday Times
But we are shirking the key question in a democracy: quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Times, Sunday Times
A key question was therefore, whether the plaster formed part of the structure of the flat.
Times, Sunday Times
By late spring the review will begin to focus on the key question: how much should fees be raised?
Times, Sunday Times
But a key question will be the age at which workers will be hit by the changes.
Times, Sunday Times
As it grew, the key question became how to fund it all.
Christianity Today
I believe this to be another key recommendation, which should strengthen integration between health and social care.
Times, Sunday Times
What was the key recommendation?
Times, Sunday Times
A key recommendation was that management would give staff more information about how the business was performing.
Times, Sunday Times
Another key recommendation centres on the need to fill short-term shortages of physicians, nurses and other health-care practitioners.
Globe and Mail
The report's key recommendation was to implement an emissions trading scheme.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
At work, instead of just hoping to be asked, you recommend yourself for the key role in an important assignment.
The Sun
As widely expected, the minutes also suggested that forthcoming wage settlements will play a key role in the future course of interest rates.
Times, Sunday Times
Someone who has a very recognisable voice plays a key role in your love life.
The Sun
Alternative truths play a key role in angling.
Times, Sunday Times
He earmarked the youngster for a key role in the tournament.
The Sun
Talks about a 720 million deal ended because of what 888 said was a 'significant difference of opinion on value with a key stakeholder'.
Times, Sunday Times
Staying relevant means keeping close not only to customers, but also to other key stakeholder groups.
Times, Sunday Times
This could include ensuring that it has key stakeholder support, or making the initiative economically feasible.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
All 20 clubs agree players, managers and medical staff are the key stakeholders in these discussions.
The Sun
We need to have a new balance between the university and key stakeholders.
Times, Sunday Times
But ministers' ebullience could soon be tempered if another key strategy founders.
Times, Sunday Times
A's key strategy, conducting up to a half-dozen polls in 2002.
The Scientist
His key strategy has been to buy experienced funeral directors.
Times, Sunday Times
It could provide a boost for the engineering group before a key strategy day in two months.
Times, Sunday Times
Continued increase of broadband penetration and applications in the consumer market was a key strategy to the company.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Profits at its technology business fell by 28 per cent because of problems with a key supplier.
Times, Sunday Times
The company has been a key supplier of car parts for more than 100 years.
Times, Sunday Times
However, that will not leave them unscathed if a bank refuses credit to a big customer or denies funding to a key supplier.
Times, Sunday Times
It has since become a key supplier.
Times,Sunday Times
Approximately 650 of its 700 staff have been furloughed and the new owners say they will keep all staff and plan to maintain the key supplier relationships.
Times,Sunday Times
Once you eliminate those who were damaged by the leak, there were only about four key suspects.
Times, Sunday Times
A police officer says that this was due to their enthusiasm for interviewing key suspects with militia links.
Times, Sunday Times
However, he said, some of the key suspects in the attack remain at large.
Globe and Mail
The move came as police continued to quiz two key suspects.
The Sun
For several months in 2006 the key suspects in the airline plot - some of whom were convicted yesterday - were under intensive surveillance.
Times, Sunday Times
We asked her for her thoughts on that key tenet of the fashionable life, il faut souffrir pour la mode (one must suffer for fashion).
Times, Sunday Times
She says that the school's obligatory business, government and society course includes the key tenets of ethical behaviour without actually using the words.
Times, Sunday Times
The revolt challenges one of the key tenets of the property industry and comes at a time when retailers' sales have been hit by the credit crunch.
Times, Sunday Times
Gather the right people around you, make sure you have enough money and market your brand relentlessly: these are some of the key tenets of business success, according to entrepreneurs.
Times, Sunday Times
The absolutism of the key tenets of neoliberalism: privatisation, deregulation, balanced budgets have been rejected by all but the most dogmatic.
Times, Sunday Times
Modest about his own achievements, he insisted that the key to success in comedy was the writing.
Times, Sunday Times
She claimed another key to success was patience.
Times, Sunday Times
Both the loyalty of established friends and new faces are the key to success.
The Sun
The key to success will be lifelong learning.
Times, Sunday Times
His smooth style could be the key to success in front of his own supporters.
The Sun
The key turning point on his journey to stardom, he says, was a spiritual one.
Globe and Mail
Being the best you can for each other marks a key turning point for a relationship.
The Sun
A key turning point was the realisation in the 1990s that properties next to wellmaintained canals and rivers attracted a premium of up to 20 per cent.
Times, Sunday Times
And some professional advice, which comes out of the blue, marks a key turning point.
The Sun
Metal forging appears to be a key turning point in the creation of significant air pollution levels outside the home.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Indeed, two quit even after winning key votes because their margins of victory made them seem moral defeats.
Times, Sunday Times
The government would lose key votes.
Times, Sunday Times
Its methods were the use of barracking to shout down opposing views, of packing meetings and of outstaying the ordinary members so that key votes would be won.
Times, Sunday Times
Regional unity across party lines was essential on key votes.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
It led to the 16-month being dropped and an investigation launched into its key witness.
The Sun
He was considered by many a key witness and possible suspect.
Times, Sunday Times
Yesterday, trying to keep the day's key witness to the point proved a largely futile exercise in cat-herding.
Times, Sunday Times
He says he has a key witness ready to testify if the case goes to court.
Times, Sunday Times
Driver was unmasked as a fraudster and a key witness admitted that she had invented everything in a deal with police for a cash reward.
Times, Sunday Times
The on-screen keypad can also be clicked with a mouse, performing the same function as the keyboard key would have performed.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Each joystick can be divided into several zones based on thresholds and each zone within each joystick can be bound to a keyboard key.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Several keyboard keys were redefined to create a makeshift numeric keypad.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Some keyboard keys may pause the screen output.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
A special keypad was provided for learners to the right of the standard keyboard keys.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
I'm sure that she could hang her locker key on that belt ...
The Sun
A locker key, the first of 789, at 5 a throw.
Times, Sunday Times
Rubber bracelets like you had to wear around your wrist with your locker key on, to go swimming with school.
Times, Sunday Times
So many towels have gone missing that gym users are now being asked to hand over their membership cards in return for a towel and locker key.
Times, Sunday Times
They made copies of locker keys then pinched credit cards from five wallets.
The Sun
Have lost key personnel to rival outfits and turnaround could have impact given inconsistent pre-season effort.
The Sun
He added that 514,584 has been spent on 200 lost key incidents since 2010.
Times, Sunday Times
That's when injuries take their toll and it's noticeable both sides have lost key players in recent weeks.
The Sun
I was woken at 3am by a drunk trying to get in and bed down, using our lost key.
Times, Sunday Times
We lost key players from our system.
The Sun
The early machines weighed up to 13 pounds and were piano key operated top-loader with red clocks and timers.
Times, Sunday Times
The first thing you notice are the piano key function buttons, which access everything from the climate to the satnav.
The Sun
The player then hammers onto the strings with the fingertips in the same way that one would strike a piano key.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Striking the piano key with greater velocity increases the amplitude of the waves and therefore the volume.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
In the silent mode, sensors pick up the piano key movement.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
We no longer dial numbers, we just press a key.
Times, Sunday Times
When you press a key or button, it sends the air to the reed and you make a sound.
Times, Sunday Times
The program flashes up pictures of healthy foods, such as fruit and vegetables, and asks players to press a key on their keyboard immediately.
Times, Sunday Times
Unknown callers are asked to announce themselves and press a key before your phone rings.
The Sun
The player can also press a key to switch to first-person view mode.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
It's not a great idea to leave a spare key under the flower pot if you live in the most dangerous place in the country.
The Sun
But despite being uninsured, 20 per cent admitted regularly leaving windows open while one in 20 even left a spare key under the mat.
The Sun
And he would give him the spare key to bring over on the first ferry.
Times, Sunday Times
We left a spare key with her in case we got locked out.
Christianity Today
So the next time we went out, we kept the air-con on with a spare key card.
Times, Sunday Times
That door opens up a world where we do not lock up and throw away the key.
Times,Sunday Times
Chuck him back inside, throw away the key and pay him no more attention.
The Sun
Lock him up and throw away the key.
The Sun
Did they lock him up and throw away the key?
The Sun
And she urged the judge to 'throw away the key' when sentencing the brute today.
The Sun
You just turn the key and it fires rudely into life.
Times, Sunday Times
Turn the key and the experience comes alive.
The Sun
Turn the key, and there's no engine roar, just a solitary warning beep to tell you all systems are go.
Times, Sunday Times
It's silent when you turn the key and goes immediately into electric mode.
The Sun
Solid locks, cleverly designed so that if you forget to turn the key, everything falls out.
Times, Sunday Times
Exclamation marks ran riot and his streams-ofconsciousness rang with the thunder of his typewriter keys.
Times, Sunday Times
Now the clatter of typewriter keys has become the latest echo from the predigital world to be heard again.
Times, Sunday Times
The strings are usually made of steel, and are pressed down using typewriter keys.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Late at night, his fellow soldiers could often hear the sound of the typewriter keys.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Translations:
Chinese: 按键, 钥匙, 关键的
Japanese: キー music/computer, 鍵 for lock, 重要な
- on the cards
- on the cards
- on the carpet
- on the case
- on the case
- on the cheap
- on the coat-tails of sb
- on the coat-tails of sb/sth
- on the coat-tails of someone
- on the coat-tails of sth
- on the contrary
- on the credit side
- on the crest of a wave
- on the crest of a wave
- on the cusp
- on the cusp of change
- on the decline
- on the defensive
- on the dole
- on the domestic front
- on the dot
- on the double
- on the double
- on the edge of one's seat
- on the edge of your seat