Synonyms for key

any of 24 major or minor diatonic scales that provide the tonal framework for a piece of music (noun)

• tonality

a winged often one-seed indehiscent fruit as of the ash or elm or maple (noun)

• samara

United States lawyer and poet who wrote a poem after witnessing the British attack on Baltimore during the War of 1812 (noun)

a coral reef off the southern coast of Florida (noun)

• cay

(basketball) a space (including the foul line) in front of the basket at each end of a basketball court (noun)

• paint

mechanical device used to wind another device that is driven by a spring (as a clock) (noun)

• winder

the central building block at the top of an arch or vault (noun)

• keystone
• headstone

identify as in botany or biology, for example (verb)

• identify
• discover
• distinguish
• describe
• name

serving as an essential component (adj)

• cardinal
• central
• fundamental
• primal