(Internet) A password restricting access to an IRC channel.
(advertising) A modification of an advertisement so as to target a particular group or demographic.
(architecture) A piece of wood used as a wedge.
(architecture) The last board of a floor when laid down.
(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.
(botany) An indehiscent, one-seeded fruit furnished with a wing, such as the fruit of the ash and maple; a samara.
(cartomancy) The thirty-third card of the Lenormand deck.
(computer graphics, television) A color to be masked or made transparent.
(computing) A value that uniquely identifies an entry in a container.
(computing) One of several small, usually square buttons on a typewriter or computer keyboard, mostly corresponding to text characters.
(cryptography) A piece of information (e.g., a password or passphrase) used to encode or decode a message or messages.
(databases) In a relational database, a field used as an index into another table (not necessarily unique).
(figurative) The general pitch or tone of a sentence or utterance.
(historical) A manual electrical switching device primarily used for the transmission of Morse code.
(masonry) A keystone.
(music) A scale or group of pitches constituting the basis of a musical composition.
(print and film) The black ink layer, especially in relation to the three color layers of cyan, magenta, and yellow. See also CMYK.
(rail transport) A wooden support for a rail on the bullhead rail system.
(slang) Clipping of kilogram (especially of a recreational drug)
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.
Alternative form of quay.
An object designed to fit between two other objects (such as a shaft and a wheel) in a mechanism and maintain their relative orientation.
An object designed to open and close a lock.
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.
In musical instruments, one of the valve levers used to select notes, such as a lever opening a hole on a woodwind.
In musical notation, a sign at the head of a staff indicating the musical key.
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 theory, the total melodic and harmonic relations, which exist between the tones of an ideal scale, major or minor; tonality.
One of a string of small islands.
That part of the plastering which is forced through between the laths and holds the rest in place.
The degree of roughness, or retention ability of a surface to have applied a liquid such as paint, or glue.
The lowest note of a scale; keynote.
verb
(advertising, transitive) To modify (an advertisement) so as to target a particular group or demographic.
(colloquial) To vandalize (a car, etc.) by scratching with an implement such as a key.
(computing) (more usually to key in) To enter (information) by typing on a keyboard or keypad.
(intransitive, biology, chiefly taxonomy) To be identified as a certain taxon when using a key.
(radio) To operate (the transmitter switch of a two-way radio).
(telegraphy and radio telegraphy) To depress (a telegraph key).
To attune to; to set at; to pitch.
To fasten or secure firmly; to fasten or tighten with keys or wedges.
To fit (a lock) with a key.
To fit (pieces of a mechanical assembly) with a key to maintain the orientation between them.
To link (as one might do with a key or legend).
To mark or indicate with a symbol indicating membership in a class.
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).
