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An object designed to open and close a lock.
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An object designed to fit between two other objects (such as a shaft and a wheel) in a mechanism and maintain their relative orientation.
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A crucial step or requirement.
example
The key to solving this problem is persistence.
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A guide explaining the symbols or terminology of a map or chart; a legend.
example
The key says that A stands for the accounting department.
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A guide to the correct answers of a worksheet or test.
example
Some students cheated by using the answer key.
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One of several small, usually square buttons on a typewriter or computer keyboard, mostly corresponding to text characters.
example
Press the Escape key.
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In musical instruments, one of the valve levers used to select notes, such as a lever opening a hole on a woodwind.
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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.
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The lowest note of a scale; keynote.
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In musical theory, the total melodic and harmonic relations, which exist between the tones of an ideal scale, major or minor; tonality.
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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.
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In musical notation, a sign at the head of a staff indicating the musical key.
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The general pitch or tone of a sentence or utterance.
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A modification of an advertisement so as to target a particular group or demographic.
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An indehiscent, one-seeded fruit furnished with a wing, such as the fruit of the ash and maple; a samara.
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A manual electrical switching device primarily used for the transmission of Morse code.
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A piece of information (e.g. a passphrase) used to encode or decode a message or messages.
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A password restricting access to an IRC channel.
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In a relational database, a field used as an index into another table (not necessarily unique).
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A value that uniquely identifies an entry in a container.
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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.
example
He shoots from the top of the key.
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A series of logically organized groups of discriminating information which aims to allow the user to correctly identify a taxon.
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A piece of wood used as a wedge.
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The last board of a floor when laid down.
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A keystone.
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That part of the plastering which is forced through between the laths and holds the rest in place.
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A wooden support for a rail on the bullhead rail system.
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The degree of roughness, or retention ability of a surface to have applied a liquid such as paint, or glue.
example
The door panel should be sanded down carefully to provide a good key for the new paint.
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The thirty-third card of the Lenormand deck.
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(print and film) The black ink layer, especially in relation to the three color layers of cyan, magenta, and yellow. See also CMYK.
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A color to be masked or made transparent.