key

[kiː]

/[kiː]/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“key” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #8,577) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#8,577
frequency rank, German
4,158
“K” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Schlüssel

Corpus desk

Index DE-key · key · German

key · rank #8,577 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #8,577
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,158
  • PHOTO-FINISH Interessenten

Nearest frequency peer: Interessenten (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Häufigkeitsnachbarn des Verwechslers „key“

Peers mit ähnlichem Corpus-Gewicht, getrennt von den Verwechslungspaaren unten

corpus weight

What this shows Balken platzieren „key“ gegen die nächsten gerankten deutschen Lemmata, kein Reprint der Verwechslungsdesk.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

key vs km
33% similar
key vs kg
33% similar
key vs KW
0% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for key
PropertyValue
Headwordkey
LanguageGerman
Part of speechNoun
IPA[kiː]
Letters3
Frequency rank#8,577
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Corpus-Rang neben Verwechslern von „key“

Diese Skala geht vom Kern des Alltagdeutschen (links) bis zum seltenen Langschwanz (rechts).keyliegt auf dieser Marke:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Die Skala ist logarithmisch (jeder Tick ≈ 10× seltener). Peers derselben Seltenheitsbandbreite: „Interessenten“ (#8,576), „Kilogramm“ (#8,578), „intensiver“ (#8,575). Unter 4,158 „K“-Lemmata liegt „key“ bei #8,577. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for key is neighbouring look-alikes ("km", "kg", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced [kiː]. Frequency #8,577 among 4,158 “K” headwords. 11 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

No misspelling variants are generated for key in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable German rules. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "km", "kg", "KW", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct German form is key, spelled K-E-Y.

Definition

  1. 1
    Schlüssel
  2. 2
    Chiffrierschlüssel, Chiffre, Kennzahl, Passwort
  3. 3
    Taste
  4. 4
    flache Insel (aus Korallen)
  5. 5
    Legende, Zeichenerklärung, Lösungsschlüssel
  6. 6
    Tonart
  7. 7
    ein Keil
  8. 8
    der Schlussstein in einem Rundbogen
  9. 9
    Samara, Flügelfrucht
  10. 10
    Passfeder
  11. 11
    die Klappe an einem Blasinstrument

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how key appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. I lost my keys.

Synonyms

caylegend

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 German corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "key"?
"key" is spelled K-E-Y. The IPA pronunciation is [kiː].
What does "key" mean?
As a noun, "key" means: Schlüssel
What words are commonly confused with "key"?
"key" is commonly confused with "km", "kg", "KW". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "key"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "key" is [kiː]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "key" come from?
"key" is a German word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar German words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "key", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked German headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

our#8,607ego#8,546reg#8,613CAM#8,532

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list