Keyboard

How to spell keyboard

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce keyboard

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does keyboard mean?

1. nounA panel of keys used to type characters or operate a computer or typewriter.
2. nounAn electronic musical instrument with a row of keys, played like a piano.

Keyboard in a sentence

• Crumbs from his lunch were stuck between the keyboard keys.

• He plays keyboard in a local covers band on weekends.

• She ordered a wireless keyboard to keep her desk tidy.

• The second-hand keyboard came with a stand and a sustain pedal.

Where does keyboard come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a transparent English compound formed from two native words, 'key' and 'board'. The element 'key' comes from Old English 'caeg', which originally named the metal instrument for opening a lock; over time it was extended to the lettered or numbered levers on a musical instrument, then to the buttons of typewriters and computers. The element 'board' descends from Old English 'bord', meaning a plank or flat surface. The two were joined in the seventeenth century to describe the row of keys on a harpsichord or organ, and the term was later carried over to typewriters in the nineteenth century and computers in the twentieth. Because both parts are ordinary, familiar words, the spelling holds no real surprises beyond remembering that it is written as a single closed compound.

How the word is built

• key (a lever or button)
• board (a flat surface or panel)