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Glite Dictionary
tab key

tab key

1 2.3
A key on a keyboard that moves the cursor to the right to indent or align text
  • noun
  • /tæb ki/
  • Specialized
translation icon : tecla de tabulación
  • Use style sheets or the tab key to make this consistent.
  • press the tab key
  • tab key to move

Examples

  • To align your text properly, press the tab key on your keyboard.

  • You can use the tab key to indent paragraphs in a document.

  • It is saying, "A word processor without a tab key is a broken word processor."

    Blog text (28)

  • S2 preferred to use the Tab key to move from item to item instead of the mouse, but she did use the mouse several times.

    Academic text (2010)

  • You can turn the palettes and the toolbox on and off from the monitor screen by pressing the Tab key.

    Academic text (1999)

  • Most of the time I use Alt+Tab to activate the windows I need, but I found that having a dedicated button on the mouse mapped to the Alt+Tab key combo is really practical.

    Blog text (23)

  • When filling out the form, just hit the tab key to move to the next entry field.

Synonyms

tab
vstab key
16 2.5

A keyboard key that moves the cursor to the next position

has identical meaning but is the shorter single-word label form

Surface Forms

tab key singular
tab keys plural

Morphology

tab + key

The meaning is directly and compositional: 'tab' names the function or label and 'key' names a pressable keyboard lever, so 'tab key' straightforwardly means the key that performs the tab function. This is a regular noun–noun compound following common compounding patterns, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will understand the expression.

Etymology

The tab key comes from old typewriters and office machines called 'tabulators'. Those machines had set stops across the page, so pressing the tab key moved the typing cursor to the next stop to make neat columns. That's why today the tab key jumps the cursor to 'indent' or 'align' text.