Word.ws English Dictionary

key log

key log noun: the log which, if removed, would free up the whole logjam.

Noun

key log (plural key logs)

  1. The log which, if removed, would free up the whole logjam.
  2. The key issue or problem, which if (re)solved, would make the current task easy to complete. The issue around which the whole problem revolves.
    • In a log jam, where everything is at cross-purposes, there is somewhere a key log causing the trouble. The key log in the educational jam is the department, and the things which have caused it to make so much trouble are narrow departmental ambition and excessive striving for reputation through the...1932 December, Homer L. Dodge, “The Improvement of College Teaching”, in The Journal of Higher Education, volume 3, number 9, Ohio State University Press, page 485
    • Present conditions are "a crisis of confidence. . . . Electric utilities are the key log."1938, Col. Leonard P. Ayres, quoted in ""Cheapskate" Counterpoint", in Time magazine, Monday, Jan. 10, 1938

Forms of key log

pluralkey logs

Questions about key log

What does key log mean?
Key log means the log which, if removed, would free up the whole logjam.
What part of speech is key log?
Key log is a noun.
What is the plural of key log?
The plural of key log is key logs.

Words near key log in the dictionary

  1. key lights
  2. key lime
  3. key lime pie
  4. Key lime pies
  5. key limes
  6. key log
  7. key logger
  8. key loggers
  9. key logs
  10. key man insurance
  11. key man risk

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: key log (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 log.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/key_log. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.