keyboard

/ˌkiˈbɔərd/

/ˈkibɔd/

Other forms: keyboards

What do pianos and computers have in common? They both have keyboards! A computer keyboard has numbers and letters, but a piano keyboard has musical notes. The keyboard is the part that you press with your fingers.

Besides the rockin’ keyboard of a synthesizer, piano, or organ, there is also the computer keyboard. This keyboard is used for typing, with the earliest examples being the keyboards on typewriters. Occasionally, the word keyboard is used as a verb, meaning "to type on keyboard." It’s also, literally, a board with little hooks to hang the other kind of keys on. The musical instrument meaning came first, around 1819.

Definitions of keyboard

1. noun

   device consisting of a set of keys on a piano or organ or typewriter or typesetting machine or computer or the like
   types:

   computer keyboard, keypad

   a keyboard that is a data input device for computers; arrangement of keys is modelled after the typewriter keyboard

   clavier, fingerboard, piano keyboard

   a bank of keys on a musical instrument

   typewriter keyboard

   a keyboard for manually entering characters to be printed

   QWERTY keyboard

   the standard typewriter keyboard; the keys for Q, W, E, R, T, and Y are the first six from the left on the top row of letter keys

   type of:

   device

   an instrumentality invented for a particular purpose
2. noun

   holder consisting of an arrangement of hooks on which keys or locks can be hung
   type of:

   holder

   a holding device