Keys

How to spell keys

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce keys

What does keys mean?

1. nounSmall shaped metal instruments used to open or fasten locks.
2. nounThe individual buttons or levers pressed on a keyboard, piano, or similar instrument.

Keys in a sentence

• She dropped her house keys behind the sofa cushion.

• The piano keys were yellowed with age but still played sweetly.

• The spare car keys are hanging by the back door.

• Some of the keys on the old laptop had stopped responding.

Where does keys come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the plural of 'key', which descends from the Old English word 'cǣg', meaning a metal instrument for opening or fastening a lock. The deeper origins are murky: 'cǣg' has no certain relatives in the other Germanic languages, so scholars cannot trace it confidently beyond early English. Over the centuries the single sense of a lock-opener branched outward, so that the word now also names the levers struck on a piano or typewriter, the answer sheet that unlocks a puzzle, and the tonal home of a piece of music. The spelling has stayed remarkably stable, with the silent letter pattern softened into the familiar '-ey' ending. The plural simply adds '-s', giving 'keys', a word that sounds identical to 'quays' (the plural of the dockside landing 'quay'), which is the main spelling trap.

How the word is built

• key (from Old English cǣg: a device for fastening)
• -s (plural)