chave
Portuguese, noun/ˈʃa.vi/
chave is spelled C-H-A-V-E (5 letters) and appears 72 times per million words in written Portuguese, the 1,337th most frequent Portuguese word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Chave is a Portuguese feminine noun meaning “key (object that opens and closes a lock)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário) defines it as “objeto usado para abrir e fechar uma fechadura, algemas ou cadeado”.
What does chave mean in English?
noun
- 1
femininekey (object that opens and closes a lock)
Chave do portão
- 2
femininekey (object that is inserted into a device and rotated to activate it)
Chave do carro
- 3
feminineany of several tools designed to turn screws, bolts, nuts, etc., especially a spanner
Chave de fenda/chave de fendas
- 4
femininecurly bracket (name of the characters { and })
Coloque o valor entre chaves.
- 5
femininekey (crucial step, element or requirement)
Terminar dentro do prazo é a chave para o sucesso.
- 6
femininekeys (free access to something)
- 7
femininekey; password
- 8
femininekey (a string used to encode or decode text)
adjective
- 1
key; crucial; indispensable
Source: English Wiktionary, Portuguese section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How Portuguese dictionaries define it
noun: 1. objeto usado para abrir e fechar uma fechadura, algemas ou cadeado 2. sinal (junto com colchetes e parênteses) usado para agrupar elementos matemáticos em operações de prioridades diversas 3. clave musical 4. golpe usado para imobilizar o adversário
The definition in the Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário), in Portuguese.
Source: Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of chave
- chaves plural
Source: English Wiktionary and Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce chave?
- Brazil /ˈʃa.vi/
- Portugal /ˈʃa.vɨ/
- Portugal /ˈt͡ʃa.bɨ/
Sources: English Wiktionary, Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to chave
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is chave in Portuguese?
chave appears 72 times per million words in written Portuguese.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).