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PlainSpell

keystroke

noun, verb

keystroke is a noun meaning “The act of pressing an input key on a computer keyboard, typewriter, or similar input device” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled K-E-Y-S-T-R-O-K-E and has 2 syllables, and it appears about once in every 5 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of keystroke is keystrokes.

What does keystroke mean?

noun

  1. 1

    The act of pressing an input key on a computer keyboard, typewriter, or similar input device.

  2. 2

    informalA keyboard shortcut.

verb

  1. 1

    To enter (data etc.) by pressing keys on a keyboard.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce keystroke?

  • US

Keystroke has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Flame,_not_lame-keystroke.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of keystroke

  • keystrokes plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • keystroking participle, present
  • keystroked participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is keystroke?

Keystroke appears about once in every 5 million words in written English, the 69,884th 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).

Keystroke in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

In the sense act of pressing a key:

LanguageWords
Frenchfrappe d'une touche
GermanTastendruck, Tastenanschlag

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does keystroke come from?

From key + stroke.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).