Word.ws English Dictionary

keystone

/ˈkiː.stəʊn/

keystone noun: the top stone of an arch.

keystone: the top stone of an arch
Image: Otto Lueger, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

keystone (plural keystones)

  1. The top stone of an arch.
    • The tunnel, which is 1,000 yd. long, had been closed to passenger traffic since November 17, 1949, after some of the keystones had worked loose.1950 March, “Notes and News: Sugar Loaf Tunnel, Central Wales Line”, in Railway Magazine, page 209
  2. Something on which other things depend for support.
    • Tension between empirical and theoretical knowledge is keystone to sociological and to organizational theories, as early as in Marx's and Weber's frameworks.1999, Eliezer Geisler, Methodology, Theory, and Knowledge in the Managerial and Organizational ...
  3. A retail price that is double the cost price; a markup of 100%.
  4. The combination of the shortstop and second baseman.

Verb

keystone (third-person singular simple present keystones, present participle keystoning, simple past and past participle keystoned)

  1. (transitive) To distort (an image) by projecting it onto a surface at an angle, which for example causes a square to look like a trapezoid.
  2. (transitive) To double the cost price in order to determine the retail price; to apply a markup of 100%.

Proper noun capitalized: Keystone

Keystone

  1. A census-designated place in Colorado.
  2. A city and town in Iowa.
  3. A ghost town in North Dakota.
  4. A town in South Dakota.

keystone meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

keystone in Hindi

कीस्टोन

keystone in Tamil

the top stone of an arch
கீஸ்டோன் kīsṭōṉ

keystone in Marathi

कीस्टोन, किस्टोन, किल्लीचा दगड

keystone in Urdu

ڈاٹ, کلیدی پتھر, مرکز
More languagesFewer languages
keystone in Bengali
কোনো ব্যবস্থার প্রধান ভিত্তি
keystone in Telugu
కీస్టోన్
keystone in Malayalam
കേന്ദ്രശില, മൂലക്കല്ല്, തലക്കല്ല്, ആണി
keystone in Kannada
ನೆತ್ತಿಗಲ್ಲು nettigallu
keystone in Punjabi
ਕੀਸਟੋਨ, ਕੁੰਜੀ-ਪੱਥਰ, ਕੀਸਟੋਨ ਤੱਕ
keystone in Gujarati
કીસ્ટોન, કીસ્ટોન સુધી
keystone in Odia
କିଷ୍ଟୋନ, କିଷ୍ଟୋନ୍, କୀଷ୍ଟୋନ
keystone in Nepali
किस्टोन, कीस्टोन
keystone in Arabic
حجر العقد
keystone in Persian
سنگ تاج
keystone in Vietnamese
rường cột

Forms of keystone

Noun
pluralkeystones
Verb
third-person singular presentkeystones
present participlekeystoning
past participlekeystoned
pastkeystoned

Plural of keystone: keystones

Origin of keystone

From key + stone. Definition 4 (retail) possibly originated in the jewelry industry in the magazine called "Jewelers' Circular-Keystone".

Words formed from keystone

Phrases with keystone

Words that rhyme with keystone

Questions about keystone

What does keystone mean?
Keystone means the top stone of an arch.
What is keystone in Hindi?
Keystone in Hindi is कीस्टोन. See Keystone meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is keystone?
Keystone can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce keystone?
Keystone is pronounced /ˈkiː.stəʊn/.
What is the plural of keystone?
The plural of keystone is keystones.

Words near keystone in the dictionary

  1. Keysor
  2. keyspace
  3. keyspaces
  4. keyster
  5. keysters
  6. keystone
  7. Keystone Cop
  8. Keystone Cops
  9. keystone corner
  10. keystone corners
  11. keystone effect

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: keystone (page history and authors); Keystone (page history and authors); keystone (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); keystone (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); keystone (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Keystone (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); keystone (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); keystone (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); keystone (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); keystone (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); keystone (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); keystone (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-keystone.wav.

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