key word
1
6.2
- noun
- /ki wɜrd/
- Specialized
:
palabra clave
- The key word in the document you received is confidential.
Examples
-
Initially, examiners read the sentence, and the items have pictures, but later, students must read the sentence or passage and identify the missing key word.
Academic text (2014) -
Again, curate examples and articles so you have a better understanding and materials to share with your principal—sharing is the key word here.
Academic text (2015) -
But "imagine" is the key word.
Academic text (2011) -
The key word in this passage is "political."
Academic text (1994) -
However, SILENT is the key word here.
Blog text (23) -
The key word in their DS is "philosophy."
Blog text (10) -
Reproduction is a key word when speaking about pseudo-events.
Academic text (2018) -
The key word here is "reasonable" since either too little or too much musical challenge will fail to motivate children.
Academic text (1996) -
Furthermore, in each of the failures, after a second presentation, the sentence was either understood in its entirety or just one key word was incorrectly identified.
Academic text (1994) -
The key word for a reasonable perception of our place in nature isn't "natural disaster," then, but "human vulnerability." After the recent Asian tsunami, many governments and millions of people around the world have generously provided support for the victims.
Academic text (2005)
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a particularly important word used to identify or categorize content' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'key' (important) with 'word' (term). This adjective+noun composition is common cross-linguistically (e.g., Spanish 'palabra clave', French 'mot clé'), so a B1 learner who knows both constituents should be able to infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Key word may come from the image of a secret word that works like a key to open a coded message: when you use the right word, you can 'unlock' the cipher. That's why it means a word chosen to decode a message.