Word.ws English Dictionary

key-word

key-word is the dated form of keyword.

Meaning of keyword

Noun

keyword (plural keywords)

  1. Any word used as the key to a code.
    Synonyms:
    password, passcode
  2. Any word used in a reference work to link to other words or other information.
  3. Any important word in a text or document, which may be linked to other words or other information, or listed in the metadata for searches to find.
  4. A reserved word used to identify a specific command, function, etc.
    • Each function has an entry address which must be quoted after the USR keyword.1982, Popular Computing, volume 1, numbers 9-12, page 113
  5. Any word that occurs in a text more often than normal.

See all 6 meanings of keyword

Forms of key-word

pluralkey-words

Questions about key-word

What is key-word the dated form of?
Key-word is the dated form of keyword.

Words near key-word in the dictionary

  1. key-mistresses
  2. key-money
  3. key-pad
  4. key-pads
  5. key-value
  6. key-word
  7. key-words
  8. Keya Paha County
  9. keyable
  10. keyage
  11. keyaki

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: key-word (page history and authors); keyword (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “key-word.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/key-word. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.