Key

Look up key in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Key may refer to:

Common meanings

• Cay, also spelled key, a small, low-elevation, sandy island formed on the surface of a coral reef
• Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm
• Key (engineering), a type of coupling used to transmit rotation between a shaft and an attached item
• Key (lock), device used to open a lock such as in a door
• Key (map), a guide to a map's symbology
• Key, a guide to colours and symbols used in a data chart, graph, plot or diagram

Places

In the United States

• Key, Alabama
• Key, Ohio
• Key, West Virginia
• Keys, Oklahoma
• Florida Keys, an archipelago of about 1700 such islands in the southeast United States

Elsewhere

• Key Island, Tasmania, Australia
• Key, Iran, a village in Isfahan Province, Iran

People

• Key (singer) (born 1991), South Korean entertainer
• Key!, American rapper

Surnames

• Key (surname)

Art, entertainment, and media

Fictional characters

• Key (comics), a DC Comics supervillain
• Key (Marvel Comics), a fictional mutant character

Fictional works

• Key the Metal Idol, Japanese anime OVA series
• Kirby's Epic Yarn (KEY), a 2010 game by Nintendo
• "The Keys" (Seinfeld), a 1992 TV episode

Music

Albums

• Key (Son, Ambulance album), 2004
• Key (Meredith Monk album), 1971

Other uses

• Key (instrument), part of a musical instrument used for playing or tuning
• Key (music), the tonic chord of a piece of music
  • Key signature, an indication of the key in musical notation
• Keys, short for keyboard instruments

Visual arts

• Chroma key, a method to superimpose several video layers using areas of a defined color as a mask .
• Key frame, a frame made by an animator from which other frames are derived
• Key light, the primary light source that illuminates an image or scene
• Key plate, a plate which prints the detail in an image, often using the color black
• Key color (typically black), in the CMYK color model
• The primary tone of an image, as in:
  • high key images
  • low key images

Biology

• Samara (fruit) or key, a type of fruit in which a flattened wing of fibrous, papery tissue develops from the ovary wall, often called "helicopters"
• Identification key, a method of deducing the correct species assignment of a living thing
• Single-access key, a method used for categorizing species using logical choices

Companies and organizations

• Keys, a China-based global booking platform for B&B, boutique hotels and luxury apartment.
• Key (company), a Japanese visual novel studio
• House of Keys, the directly elected lower branch of Tynwald, the parliament of the Isle of Man
• Key Club, a worldwide student service organization
• KeyBank, a bank headquartered in the Key Tower in Cleveland, Ohio

Computing

• Computer keyboard keys
• KeY, a software verification tool
• .key, file extension used by Keynote (presentation software)
• Key, a data element which allows one to find associated data value or values by using a database index, hash table or a Memory location

Education

• Key English Test, an international examination of basic level of English language.
• Answer key, list of answers to a test (assessment)

Sports

• Key (basketball), a restricted area around the basketball net
• Frederick Keys, a Double-A minor league baseball team

Other uses

• Keys, a truce term used in western Scotland
• Telegraph key, the button used by a telegraph operator

See also

• All pages beginning with "Key"
• All pages with titles containing Key
• Keay
• Keyes (disambiguation)
• Keying (disambiguation)
• The Key (disambiguation)
• The Keys (disambiguation)
• Quay