clavis
/ˈkleɪ.vɪs/noun
clavis is a noun meaning “A Roman key” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled C-L-A-V-I-S and has 2 syllables, and it appears about once in every 20 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of clavis is clavises or claves.
What does clavis mean?
noun
- 1
A Roman key.
- 2
A device for restraint of the hands.
- 3
Synonym of glossary: a key to the meaning of various terms.
- 4
A key; an identification guide; a series of logically organized groups of discriminating information which aims to allow the user to correctly identify a taxon.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce clavis?
- US /ˈkleɪ.vɪs/
- US /ˈklɑv.ɪs/
Clavis has 2 syllables (counted from the pronunciation).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-clavis.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-clavis2.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of clavis
- clavises plural
- claves plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is clavis?
Clavis appears about once in every 20 million words in written English, the 134,976th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Where does clavis come from?
From Latin clāvis (“a key”). Doublet of clave and clef.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).