Key vs. Pivotal: Difference and Comparison
Edited by Muazma Batool — By Muneeza Rehman — Updated on September 8, 2023
Key signifies something crucial or fundamental, while pivotal refers to a vital or central element with a strong impact on the development or outcome.
Difference Between Key and Pivotal
In the nuanced landscape of the English language, the terms key and pivotal often intersect, but with subtle differences. The term key usually denotes something of critical importance or necessity in a given situation. It could be used to describe an integral component of a machine or a critical factor in a decision-making process. It portrays a sense of indispensability. In essence, a key element or factor is one without which the system or situation at hand would not function as it should.
Muneeza Rehman
Sep 08, 2023
On the other hand, pivotal goes beyond being merely important. A pivotal moment or element holds the power to create a significant impact or even alter the course of events. It is central and vital, around which other things turn or hinge. It may represent a decisive point that determines the direction or outcome of a situation. While something key may be fundamental, something pivotal carries a deeper connotation of being a turning point or having the ability to create substantial changes.
Muneeza Rehman
Sep 08, 2023
Moreover, key can be perceived as a static term, emphasizing the existing importance of something in a setup. Whereas, pivotal denotes a dynamic aspect, often representing a critical junction or moment where shifts or changes occur. A key factor is fundamental, but a pivotal factor is transformative, having the potential to drastically alter scenarios or perspectives.
Muneeza Rehman
Sep 08, 2023
Furthermore, the term key can be utilized in various contexts with broader implications, whereas pivotal is usually reserved for describing critical junctures or turning points. In essence, while both words denote importance, key hints at the fundamental necessity, while pivotal highlights the transformative potential and central role in the dynamics of change.
Muneeza Rehman
Sep 08, 2023
It is crucial to discern the contextual nuances that differentiate key and pivotal. When describing something as key, one might be focusing on its fundamental role in a particular context. In contrast, labeling something as pivotal accentuates its central role and potential to incite change, serving as a linchpin that holds significant elements together or catalyzes notable transformations.
Muneeza Rehman
Sep 08, 2023
Key vs. Pivotal Comparison Chart
Key vs. Pivotal Definitions
◉Key
Crucial or fundamental in nature.
Having a business plan is key to the success of the startup.
Muneeza Rehman
Sep 08, 2023
◉Pivotal
Representing a point of significant change or transition.
The pivotal moment in the movie left the audience in awe.
Leo
Sep 08, 2023
◉Pivotal
Being of crucial importance.
The pivotal decision shaped the company's future.
Muneeza Rehman
Sep 08, 2023
◉Key
A set of principles or standards.
Adhering to these key principles will guide our project to success.
Olivia
Sep 08, 2023
◉Pivotal
Serving as a center point around which others revolve.
His pivotal role in the team ensures smooth project progression.
Muneeza Rehman
Sep 08, 2023
◉Key
A notched and grooved, usually metal implement that is turned to open or close a lock.
Muneeza Rehman
May 03, 2023
◉Pivotal
Critical, especially in terms of the development or success of something.
The pivotal study transformed the field of neuroscience.
Jonathan
Sep 08, 2023
◉Key
A similar implement or an electronic device used for opening, winding, or starting something
the key of a wind-up alarm clock.
the new car's electronic key.
Muneeza Rehman
May 03, 2023
◉Pivotal
Having the power to affect a substantial change.
Her pivotal speech swayed public opinion.
Levi
Sep 08, 2023
◉Key
A device, such as a wedge or pin, inserted to lock together mechanical or structural parts.
Muneeza Rehman
May 03, 2023
◉Pivotal
Being of vital or central importance; crucial
a decision that was pivotal to our success.
Muneeza Rehman
May 03, 2023
◉Key
A determining factor in accomplishing or achieving something
One key to the store's success has been consistent customer service.
Muneeza Rehman
May 03, 2023
◉Key
Something that provides access to or understanding of something else
The key to the mystery was a drug store receipt.
Muneeza Rehman
May 03, 2023
◉Pivotal
Of or pertaining to a pivot or turning point; belonging to, or constituting, a pivot; of the nature of a pivot; as, the pivotalopportunity of a career; the pivotal position in a battle.
Muneeza Rehman
May 03, 2023
◉Key
A table, gloss, or cipher containing correspondences, as for decoding or interpreting something.
Muneeza Rehman
May 03, 2023
◉Pivotal
being of crucial importance;
a pivotal event
Its pivotal location has also exposed it to periodic invasions
the polar events of this study
a polar principal
Muneeza Rehman
May 03, 2023
◉Key
(Computers) A number used by a cryptographic algorithm to encrypt or decrypt data.
Muneeza Rehman
May 03, 2023
◉Key
A button that is depressed to cause a corresponding character or function to be typed or executed by a typewriter or to be accepted as input by a computer.
Muneeza Rehman
May 03, 2023
◉Key
(Music) A button or lever that is depressed with the finger to produce or modulate the sound of an instrument, such as a clarinet or piano.
Muneeza Rehman
May 03, 2023
◉Key
A tonal system consisting of seven tones in fixed relationship to a tonic, having a characteristic key signature and being the structural foundation of the bulk of Western music; tonality.
Muneeza Rehman
May 03, 2023
◉Key
A characteristic tone or level of intensity, as of a speech or sales campaign. Often used in combination
high-key.
low-key.
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May 03, 2023
◉Key
An outline of the distinguishing characteristics of a group of organisms, used as a guide in taxonomic identification.
Muneeza Rehman
May 03, 2023
◉Key
(Basketball) An area at each end of the court between the baseline and the foul line and including the jump-ball circle at the foul line
a jump shot from the top of the key.
Muneeza Rehman
May 03, 2023
◉Key
The act of replacing portions of a video or photograph containing a preselected color with material from a separate image, as by chroma key.
Muneeza Rehman
May 03, 2023
◉Key
A low offshore island or reef, especially in the Gulf of Mexico; a cay.
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May 03, 2023
◉Key
Of crucial importance; significant
key decisions.
the key element of the thesis.
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May 03, 2023
◉Key
To be the determining or crucial factor in
a double that keyed a three-run rally in the fifth inning.
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May 03, 2023
◉Key
To bring into harmony; adjust or adapt
"achievement tests that are more clearly keyed to what students are held responsible for in high school" (New York Times).
Muneeza Rehman
May 03, 2023
◉Key
To cause to pay attention to
school officials who were keyed into the dietary needs of students.
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May 03, 2023
◉Key
To supply with a key of correspondences or with corresponding references
keyed the pages in the edited book to illustrations in the manuscript.
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May 03, 2023
◉Key
To vandalize or mar by scratching with a key
Vandals keyed the cars left in the parking garage.
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May 03, 2023
◉Key
To pay close attention; focus
improved service by keying on customer complaints.
keyed into the main points of the lecture.
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May 03, 2023
◉Key
(Sports) To watch or cover an opposing player closely in an effort to limit the player's effectiveness. Used with on
"[She] still carries the burden of scoring ... even though opponents key on her throughout every game" (Josh Barr).
Muneeza Rehman
May 03, 2023
◉Key
To replace portions of a video or photograph containing a preselected color with material from a separate image, as by chroma key.
Muneeza Rehman
May 03, 2023
◉Key
An object designed to fit between two other objects (such as a shaft and a wheel) in a mechanism and maintain their relative orientation.
Muneeza Rehman
May 03, 2023
◉Key
A crucial step or requirement.
The key to solving this problem is persistence.
the key to winning a game
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May 03, 2023
◉Key
A guide explaining the symbols or terminology of a map or chart; a legend.
The key says that A stands for the accounting department.
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May 03, 2023
◉Key
A guide to the correct answers of a worksheet or test.
Some students cheated by using the answer key.
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May 03, 2023
◉Key
(computing) One of several small, usually square buttons on a typewriter or computer keyboard, mostly corresponding to text characters.
Press the Escape key.
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May 03, 2023
◉Key
In musical instruments, one of the valve levers used to select notes, such as a lever opening a hole on a woodwind.
Muneeza Rehman
May 03, 2023
◉Key
In instruments with a keyboard such as an organ or piano, one of the levers, or especially the exposed front end of it, which are depressed to cause a particular sound or note to be produced.
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May 03, 2023
◉Key
(music) A scale or group of pitches constituting the basis of a musical composition.
the key of B-flat major
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May 03, 2023
◉Key
In musical theory, the total melodic and harmonic relations, which exist between the tones of an ideal scale, major or minor; tonality.
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◉Key
In musical theory and notation, the tonality centering in a given tone, or the several tones taken collectively, of a given scale, major or minor.
Muneeza Rehman
May 03, 2023
◉Key
In musical notation, a sign at the head of a staff indicating the musical key.
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May 03, 2023
◉Key
(advertising) A modification of an advertisement so as to target a particular group or demographic.
Muneeza Rehman
May 03, 2023
◉Key
(botany) An indehiscent, one-seeded fruit furnished with a wing, such as the fruit of the ash and maple; a samara.
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May 03, 2023
◉Key
(historical) A manual electrical switching device primarily used for the transmission of Morse code.
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May 03, 2023
◉Key
(cryptography) A piece of information (e.g., a password or passphrase) used to encode or decode a message or messages.
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May 03, 2023
◉Key
(databases) In a relational database, a field used as an index into another table (not necessarily unique).
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May 03, 2023
◉Key
(basketball) The free-throw lane together with the circle surrounding the free-throw line, the free-throw lane having formerly been narrower, giving the area the shape of a skeleton key hole.
He shoots from the top of the key.
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May 03, 2023
◉Key
(biology) A series of logically organized groups of discriminating information which aims to allow the user to correctly identify a taxon.
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May 03, 2023
◉Key
That part of the plastering which is forced through between the laths and holds the rest in place.
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May 03, 2023
◉Key
(rail transport) A wooden support for a rail on the bullhead rail system.
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May 03, 2023
◉Key
The degree of roughness, or retention ability of a surface to have applied a liquid such as paint, or glue.
The door panel should be sanded down carefully to provide a good key for the new paint.
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May 03, 2023
◉Key
(print and film) The black ink layer, especially in relation to the three color layers of cyan, magenta, and yellow. See also CMYK.
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May 03, 2023
◉Key
Indispensable, supremely important.
He is the key player on his soccer team.
Muneeza Rehman
May 03, 2023
◉Key
To fit (pieces of a mechanical assembly) with a key to maintain the orientation between them.
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May 03, 2023
◉Key
(computing) (more usually to key in) To enter (information) by typing on a keyboard or keypad.
Our instructor told us to key in our user IDs.
Muneeza Rehman
May 03, 2023
◉Key
(colloquial) To vandalize (a car, etc.) by scratching with an implement such as a key.
He keyed the car that had taken his parking spot.
Muneeza Rehman
May 03, 2023
◉Key
To modify (an advertisement) so as to target a particular group or demographic.
Muneeza Rehman
May 03, 2023
◉Key
To prepare for plastering by adding the key that part of the plastering which is forced through between the laths and holds the rest in place.
Muneeza Rehman
May 03, 2023
◉Key
An instrument by means of which the bolt of a lock is shot or drawn; usually, a removable metal instrument fitted to the mechanism of a particular lock and operated by turning in its place.
Muneeza Rehman
May 03, 2023
◉Key
A small device which is inserted into a mechanism and turned like a key to fasten, adjust, or wind it; as, a watch key; a bed key; the winding key for a clock, etc.
Muneeza Rehman
May 03, 2023
◉Key
One of a set of small movable parts on an instrument or machine which, by being depressed, serves as the means of operating it; the complete set of keys is usually called the keyboard; as, the keys of a piano, an organ, an accordion, a computer keyboard, or of a typewriter. The keys may operate parts of the instrument by a mechanical action, as on a piano, or by closing an electrical circuit, as on a computer keyboard. See also senses 12 and 13.
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May 03, 2023
◉Key
A position or condition which affords entrance, control, pr possession, etc.; as, the key of a line of defense; the key of a country; the key of a political situation.
Those who are accustomed to reason have got the true key of books.
Who keeps the keys of all the creeds.
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May 03, 2023
◉Key
That part of a mechanism which serves to lock up, make fast, or adjust to position.
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May 03, 2023
◉Key
A wedge to unite two or more pieces, or adjust their relative position; a cotter; a forelock.
Muneeza Rehman
May 03, 2023
◉Key
An indehiscent, one-seeded fruit furnished with a wing, as the fruit of the ash and maple; a samara; - called also key fruit.
Muneeza Rehman
May 03, 2023
◉Key
A family of tones whose regular members are called diatonic tones, and named key tone (or tonic) or one (or eight), mediant or three, dominant or five, subdominant or four, submediant or six, supertonic or two, and subtonic or seven. Chromatic tones are temporary members of a key, under such names as " sharp four," "flat seven," etc. Scales and tunes of every variety are made from the tones of a key.
Both warbling of one song, both in one key.
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May 03, 2023
◉Key
Fig: The general pitch or tone of a sentence or utterance.
You fall at once into a lower key.
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May 03, 2023
◉Key
A metallic lever by which the circuit of the sending or transmitting part of a station equipment may be easily and rapidly opened and closed; as, a telegraph key.
Muneeza Rehman
May 03, 2023
◉Key
any device for closing or opening an electric circuit, especially as part of a keyboard, as that used at a computer terminal or teletype terminal.
Muneeza Rehman
May 03, 2023
◉Key
A simplified version or analysis which accompanies something as a clue to its explanation, a book or table containing the solutions to problems, ciphers, allegories, or the like;
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May 03, 2023
◉Key
A word or other combination of symbols which serves as an index identifying and pointing to a particular record, file, or location which can be retrieved and displayed by a computer program; as, a database using multi-word keys. When the key is a word, it is also called a keyword.
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May 03, 2023
◉Key
To enter (text, data) using keys, especially those on a keyboard; to keyboard; as, to key the data in by hand.
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May 03, 2023
◉Key
To adjust so as to be maximally effective in a particular situation; - of actions, plans, or speech; as, to key one's campaign speech to each local audience.
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May 03, 2023
◉Key
Essential; most important; as, the key fact in the inquiry; the president was the key player inthe negotiations.
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May 03, 2023
◉Key
metal device shaped in such a way that when it is inserted into the appropriate lock the lock's mechanism can be rotated
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May 03, 2023
◉Key
something crucial for explaining;
the key to development is economic integration
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May 03, 2023
◉Key
any of 24 major or minor diatonic scales that provide the tonal framework for a piece of music
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May 03, 2023
◉Key
a winged often one-seed indehiscent fruit as of the ash or elm or maple
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May 03, 2023
◉Key
United States lawyer and poet who wrote a poem after witnessing the British attack on Baltimore during the War of 1812; the poem was later set to music and entitled `The Star-Spangled Banner' (1779-1843)
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May 03, 2023
◉Key
(basketball) a space (including the foul line) in front of the basket at each end of a basketball court; usually painted a different color from the rest of the court;
he hit a jump shot from the top of the key
he dominates play in the paint
Muneeza Rehman
May 03, 2023
◉Key
a list of answers to a test;
some students had stolen the key to the final exam
Muneeza Rehman
May 03, 2023
◉Key
a generic term for any device whose possession entitles the holder to a means of access;
a safe-deposit box usually requires two keys to open it
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May 03, 2023
◉Key
mechanical device used to wind another device that is driven by a spring (as a clock)
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May 03, 2023
◉Key
provide with a key;
We were keyed after the locks were changed in the building
Muneeza Rehman
May 03, 2023
◉Key
vandalize a car by scratching the sides with a key;
His new Mercedes was keyed last night in the parking lot
Muneeza Rehman
May 03, 2023
◉Key
harmonize with or adjust to;
key one's actions to the voters' prevailing attitude
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May 03, 2023
◉Key
serving as an essential component;
a cardinal rule
the central cause of the problem
an example that was fundamental to the argument
computers are fundamental to modern industrial structure
Muneeza Rehman
May 03, 2023
◉Key
A tool for explaining or clarifying.
The map's key helps in understanding the symbols used.
Muneeza Rehman
Sep 08, 2023
Key vs. Pivotal Frequently Asked Questions
What does the term key generally imply?
It signifies something of crucial or fundamental importance.
Muneeza Rehman
Sep 08, 2023
Can the term key represent a solution or answer?
Yes, it can denote a solution or answer in a specific context.
Muneeza Rehman
Sep 08, 2023
Is the term key restricted to any specific contexts?
No, it has broader implications and can be used in various contexts.
Muneeza Rehman
Sep 08, 2023
How does the meaning of pivotal differ from key?
Pivotal refers to something central with a significant transformative impact.
Muneeza Rehman
Sep 08, 2023
Can key also refer to a tool or device?
Yes, it can refer to a device used to operate a lock or a tool for explaining something.
Jonathan
Sep 08, 2023
Can pivotal be used to describe moments of substantial change?
Yes, it often describes moments or points of significant change or transition.
Elijah
Sep 08, 2023
What type of role does something pivotal play?
It plays a central role, often acting as a linchpin or a turning point.
Muneeza Rehman
Sep 08, 2023
What kind of imagery is often associated with the term pivotal?
It usually conjures imagery of a turning point or a critical juncture with substantial impact.
Jonathan
Sep 08, 2023
Is key usually used in static or dynamic contexts?
It is usually used in static contexts, denoting existing importance.
Levi
Sep 08, 2023
Does pivotal usually emphasize the potential for change?
Yes, it emphasizes the potential for significant change and transformative impact.
Olivia
Sep 08, 2023
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Written by
Muneeza RehmanAt Comparisons.wiki, Muneeza skillfully navigates the vast sea of information, ensuring clarity and accuracy as the lead content editor. With a keen eye for detail, she curates every comparison to enlighten and engage readers.
Edited by
Muazma BatoolAs a content editor, Muazma Batool is not just a grammar guru but a creative mastermind who breathes life into every word. With an eagle eye for detail and a passion for storytelling, she transforms bland text into engaging content that captivates audiences and drives results.
